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HEROES OF 
AMERICAN HISTORY 



RALE IG H 




SIR WALTER RALEIGH 



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SIR WALTER RALEIGH # 



BY 

FREDERICK A. OBER 



HEROES OF AMERICAN HISTORY 



ILLUSTRATED 




i 



•^•< 



HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 

NEW YORK AND LONDON 

1909 



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4 

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LIBRARY of CONGS?ESS 
Two Copies Recerved 

FtB 4 1809 

3Copyrikrit Entry 
LftSS O- XXC. NO, 
OOhv a. 



Copyright, 1909, by Harper & Brothers. 



^// rights resen>ed. 



CONTENTS 

CHAP. 

I. The Boys of Devonshire (i 552-1 570) 
il. Sir Walter and Sir Humphrey (1576- 
1580) 

III. Queen Elizabeth's Favorite (1582) 

IV. A Promoter of Discovery (1583) . 
V. Raleigh's Expedition to Roanoke 

(1584) 

VI. The Pioneer in Virginia (1585) . 
VII. Raleigh the Colonizer (i 585-1602) 
VIII. Repelling the Armada (1588) . . 
IX. The Fortunes of a Courtier (1589- 

1592) 

X. A Prisoner in the Tower (1592) 
XI. Sir Walter and El Dorado (1595) 
XII. The Expedition to Guiana (1595) 

XIII. Two Famous Victories (i 596-1 597) 

XIV. A Period of Turmoils (1597-1602) 
XV. The Great Conspiracy (1603) . . 

XVI. Twelve Years a Prisoner (1603-1615) 
XVII. The Fateful Voyage (1617) . , . 
XVIII. At the King's Mercy (1618) . . . 



15 
27 

39 

51 

71 

85 

104 

116 
134 
151 
163 
183 
203 
221 

245 
263 
281 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

SIR JOHN HAWKINS 

SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT 

THOMAS CAVENDISH 

MAP OF ROANOKE AND VICINITY . . . . 
THE "ark RALEGH," THE ENGLISH FLAG-SHIP 

SIR MARTIN FROBISHER 

JAMES I 



Frontispiece 
Facing p. 6 
48. 
72 

86 
106 

134 
264 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 



THE BOYS OF DEVONSHIRE 
1552-1570 

JUST sixty years after the West Indies 
were discovered by Christopher Colum- 
bus, an English boy was born, in the county 
of Devon, whose name was destined to be 
linked inseparably with that of America. 
The northern continent of the western hemi- 
sphere Columbus never saw, and he only 
glimpsed the southern ; but to both he opened 
routes which others followed — as Vespucci, 
Pinzon, Solis, and navigators of lesser note — 
whose laurels would never have been gather- 
ed except for their renowned predecessor. 

All who followed after Columbus, however, 
and extended European knowledge of the 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

western hemisphere, say for several dec- 
ades, were for the most part Spaniards or 
Portuguese sailing under the flag of Spain. 
That nation, indeed, regarded as exclusively 
hers, not only the West Indies, but the vast 
Caribbean Sea enclosing them, and continents 
adjacent, excepting only a portion of South 
America, which, by treaty, in 1494, was 
grudgingly allowed to Portugal. Even the 
lands discovered by the Cabots in 1497, ^^^ 
to the north of Spain's colonial possessions 
in America, were denied to England. Spain 
could not enforce that denial so far as re- 
lated to Newfoundland and the northeast 
coast of North America, but upon all the 
approaches to the tropical Caribbean Sea 
she kept a close and careful watch. 

During more than thirty years she was 
successful in retaining this island-dotted sea 
as a preserve for Spaniards only to exploit, 
though a tradition has come down to us that 
a single English vessel, said to have been 
commanded by Sebastian Cabot, sailed the 
Spanish Main within that period. 

But how could Spain hope to conceal 
from all the world her doings in the West 
Indies, when the very stones cried out against 
the atrocities of her conquistadors and fleets 



THE BOYS OF DEVONSHIRE 

of gold-and-silver-freighted galleons ploughed 
the main with millions of treasure in their 
holds? And how could the kings of other 
countries refrain from stretching forth their 
hands to seize a portion of that treasure 
perchance they could capture it on the way 
to Spain? It had been won by fraud and 
bought with blood, they reasoned, and hence 
was as much theirs as it was the Spanish 
sovereign's — always provided, of course, they 
could find a way to obtain it. The way was 
found, despite the treaties that existed be- 
tween the European nations, and if not 
by the rulers themselves, then by their 
seafaring subjects, who were called by 
them "privateers," but by the Spaniards 
''pirates." 

That "two wrongs make a right" hardly 
any one may claim to-day; but in those 
times it was held, by those who had the 
might, that the gold obtained by force was 
fair plunder for force to get again. So the 
galleons fared badly after the French and 
English found their way into the Caribbean, 
which was between the years 1525 and 1530. 
Nearly forty years in all the Spaniards had 
the West Indies to themselves; but after 
that their paper walls were broken down, 
3 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

and not only were their vessels plundered, 
but also their settlements. 

The real advent of the English into the 
Caribbean was in 1529, when a ship of that 
nation touched at Santo Domingo, and the 
same year a French squadron invaded the 
waters of that southern sea. Ten years 
later, after cruising around the island of 
Cuba, a French corsair met a Spanish war- 
ship off the harbor of Havana, and engaged 
with it in a fierce and bloody but indecisive 
sea-fight. The King of Spain frantically 
protested against this persistent invasion of 
his waters and destruction of his property, 
but the kings of France and England dis- 
clainied any participation in the piratical 
acts of their lawless subjects, though they 
did not compel them to disgorge their 
plunder. 

Thus it went on for years, the Spaniards 
despoiling the natives and the French and 
English taking toll of their ill-gotten wealth 
whenever they could lay hands upon it. The 
miserable Indians, of course, suffered vastly 
more than the Spaniards, and when, finally, 
they were brought to the verge of extermina- 
tion, they were replaced by negroes brought 
from Africa. The first slave - stealers for 



THE BOYS OF DEVONSHIRE 

the American market were Portuguese, it is 
thought, but the most successful trader in 
human flesh and blood, in the sixteenth cen- 
tury, was an Englishman, Sir John Hawkins. 
In the year 1563 (it is a matter of historic 
record) he sailed through the West Indies 
with a cargo of African slaves, which he dis- 
posed of at an immense profit to the Spanish 
planters. These cultivators of sugar-cane, 
having been brought almost to poverty's 
door by the depletion of the Indian natives, 
were rejoiced to see Sir John sail into their 
ports with that cargo of blackamoors; but 
he was not always a welcome visitor there- 
after, for, conjoining with his friend and 
fellow-countryman, Sir Francis Drake, he 
pillaged and burned the very towns and 
plantations that had purchased his slaves. 

These titled pirates, by courtesy called 
privateers, were the predecessors, by fifteen 
or twenty years, of another class of voyagers, 
merchant adventurers, and colonists, to 
which class, and not to the predatory band 
containing Drake and Hawkins, belonged the 
hero of this biography, Walter Raleigh. He 
was twenty years of age when Sir Francis 
Drake, whom the Spaniards called the 
"Dragon,*' from his terrible prowess, sailed 
5 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

through the Caribbean on a pillaging voy- 
age that left ruin and devastation in his 
wake. He was scant eleven when Sir John 
Hawkins, who had collected his cargo of 
negroes on the coast of Africa, "partly by 
the sword and partly by other means" — 
as he naively expressed it — exchanged those 
unfortunate wretches for the gold of Spanish 
planters in the West Indies. Like those 
*'Sea Kings" of renown, who had scourged 
the Spaniards with fire and sword, Raleigh 
was a native of Devon, and as a youth must 
have heard the oft-told story of their ad- 
ventures, perhaps from their own lips, and 
may have imbibed from them his hatred of 
the Spaniards — for he was all his life an 
enemy of Spain. 

Walter Raleigh was bom at Hayes, in the 
county of Devon, in the year 1552. His 
ancestors had lived in Devonshire since the 
Norman Conquest, the patrimonial estate 
having been Fardell, from which his father 
removed previous to his birth. Anciently 
the family held vast possessions in the 
county as well as elsewhere, but owing to 
the prodigality of his ancestors, who were 
related to several titled families in Devon, 
Walter Raleigh senior was compelled to dis- 
6 




SIR JOHN HAWKINS 



THE BOYS OF DEVONSHIRE 

pose of his inheritance and rent a farm. The 
manor-house in which he who was afterward 
known as *'Sir Walter" first saw the Hght, 
and also the very room, may be seen to-day 
by the visitor to Hayes (we are told by a 
British biographer), but the house itself is 
probably greatly changed. 

Walter Raleigh, the father of our hero, who 
was thus obscurely bom, is chiefly known to 
fame, says an old historian, as *'the husband 
of three wives," the third and last of whom 
was Sir Walter's mother. He had two sons 
by his first wife, a daughter by his second, 
and two sons and a daughter by his third. 
This third wife, who was the widow of 
Otto Gilbert and the daughter of Sir Philip 
Champemoun, was already the mother of 
three sons when married to Walter Raleigh 
senior. These sons were the afterward cele- 
brated Humphrey, John, and Adrian Gil- 
bert, whose fame at one time was scarcely 
second to Sir Walter's. 

In truth, this favored woman could boast, 
in her later years, that she was * ' the mother 
of five noble knights": Sir Walter and Sir 
Carew Raleigh; Sir Humphrey, Sir John, 
and Sir Adrian Gilbert. She was a woman 
of strong character, ''of noble wit, and of 
7 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

good and godly opinions"; but, though 
adored by her husband and children, it is 
not known that they left any remembrance 
of her save their verbal tributes to her 
many virtues. Only a glimpse is afforded 
us of Mistress Katherine Champemoun Ra- 
leigh, and this reveals her in a prison, 
whither she had gone to comfort a poor 
woman convicted of heresy, who was soon 
after put to death by command of ''Bloody 
Mary." 

Katherine Raleigh, like her husband, was 
of noble lineage, and doubtless Walter was 
nurtured upon the traditions of his famous 
ancestors, in common with his half-brothers, 
the Gilberts. Some of their portraits had 
been preserved with the wreckage of the 
family, and among other relics of departed 
glory was a target, centuries old, which had 
been suspended in a chapel erected by a 
valiant forebear, in commemoration of a 
miraculous escape from the Gauls. This 
target was an object of adoration to the 
youthful Walter, as a visible reminder of 
heroic deeds which he fain would emulate. 
So little is known of Walter's childhood days, 
however, that we can form no clear concept 
of him then; but doubtless he had a happy 
8 



THE BOYS OF DEVONSHIRE 

boyhood; and that he was an object of affec- 
tionate solicitude to his elder half-brothers, 
especially Humphrey and Gilbert, their in- 
timate friendship in maturer days amply 
testifies. 

Where he acquired the rudiments of his 
education is not known, nor when he laid 
the foundations of that vast fund of knowl- 
edge which he possessed later in life; but 
his native Devon was the home of sailor- 
folk, who, returning thither from long voy- 
ages to various parts of the world then visit- 
ed by Britons, brought with them wonderful 
tales of adventure. From them, no doubt, 
the alert and receptive Walter gained a fund 
of information, from which he drew in later 
years, and received impressions upon his 
plastic mind which were ineffaceable. Among 
these, doubtless deeply stamped, were the 
heroic and horrible deeds of the Spaniards 
in America. Cortes and Pizarro must have 
been living realities to him, and the atroci- 
ties practised by them upon the inoffensive 
Americans must have confirmed in him that 
detestation of Spanish policy which Drake 
and Hawkins may have first aroused. 

The doubt that has existed as to the time 
and place of Walter Raleigh's attendance at 
9 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

school, or schools, is greater than that at- 
taching to his birthplace — for even this was 
at one period questioned. It is unfortunate 
that we have not as conclusive evidence as 
to his school-days as we have relating to his 
birthplace, which is found in a letter written 
by him to a friend in Devonshire, under date 
of July 26, 1584. It relates to Hayes Bar- 
ton, as it was called, in the parish of East 
Budleigh, Devonshire, and is as follows: 

*'I wrote to Mr. Prideaux to move yow 
touchinge the purchase of a farme sometime 
in my father's possession. I will most will- 
ingly give whatsoever in your conscience 
you shall deeme it worth ; and if at any time 
yow shall have occasion to use me, yow shall 
fynd me a thankfull frind to yow and yours. 

''I am resolved, if I cannot entreat yow, 
to build at Colliton. But for the naturall 
disposition I have to that place, being horn 
in that house, I had rather seate myself there 
than any where els." 

This letter, written when Raleigh was al- 
ready great and powerful at court, a favorite 
of Queen Elizabeth, an object of envy, shows 
the depth of his affection for the scenes of 
his youth, and as well identifies the place of 



THE BOYS OF DEVONSHIRE 

his birth. The mists about him clear some- 
what when, arrived at the age of sixteen, he 
is sent to Oxford, where he was entered at 
Oriel College, and is supposed to have resided 
at least a year. Some of his biographers put 
his Oxford term at three years; but it is 
doubtful if he was there more than two years, 
as at eighteen he is found serving as a soldier 
in France. Neither is it believed that after 
leaving Oxford he studied law, as some have 
stated, for he himself has said that he read 
"not a word of law or statutes" previous to 
his long term of imprisonment in the Tower 
of London. 

A mist of doubt, if not a veil of mystery, 
obscures his soldier life in France as well, 
but we know that he was there and spent a 
''good part of his youth in war and martial 
services." He sailed for France with his 
mother's nephew, Henry Champemoun, who 
had raised, and then commanded, a com- 
pany of ''gentleman volunteers," whose 
services he placed at the disposal of the 
Huguenots. 

He left behind him at the university, it 

is said, a reputation as a " wit and a scholar," 

short as was his connection with that famous 

seat of learning, while in France he made a 

II 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

record as a good soldier. Rather, it may be 
said, he made no record as a poor one, for 
the evidence as to his behavior and ex- 
ploits is of a negative character, and mainly 
drawn from his own narratives. In the 
famous History of the World, which he wrote 
when a prisoner in the Tower, occurs this 
passage, corroborative of his participation 
in active warfare: "I remember it well, that 
when the Prince of Conde was slain, after 
the battle of Jarnac, . . . the Protestants did 
greatly bewail his loss in respect of his re- 
ligion, person, and birth; yet, comforting 
themselves, they thought it rather an ad- 
vancement than a hindrance to their affairs; 
for so much did his valor outreach the ad- 
visedness of Coligni, that whatsoever the 
Admiral intended to win by attending the 
advantage, the Prince adventured to lose by 
being over-confident in his own courage." 

Again, after stating that "it is less dis- 
honor to dislodge [retreat] in the dark than 
to be beaten in the light," he says: *'And 
yet that worthy gentleman. Count Ludowick 
of Nassau, brother to the late famous Prince 
of Orange, made the retreat at Moncontour 
with so great resolution as he saved one half 
of the Protestant army, then broken and 

12 



THE BOYS OF DEVONSHIRE 

disbanded — of which myself was an eye- 
witness, and was one of them that had cause 
to thank him for it." 

As to the length of Raleigh's stay in 
France there is some disagreement, also as 
to the value of his services to the Huguenot 
cause; but as the troop of which he was a 
member remained six years engaged in in- 
termittent warfare, doubtless his term of 
service extended through that period and 
he acquitted himself with credit. With the 
carelessness of a soldier, he ignores entirely 
the great actions in which he must have 
participated, and only incidentally allows 
us a glimpse of himself and the minor affairs 
in which he took part. Insight is afforded 
as to the character of these affairs — at least, 
of some of them — ^by the following paragraph 
from his history: "I saw, in the third Civil 
War of France, certain caves in Languedoc 
which had' but one entrance, and that very 
narrow, cut out in the midway of high rocks, 
which we knew not how to enter by any 
ladder or engine; till at last, by certain 
bundles of straw, let down by an iron chain 
and a weighty stone in the midst, those that 
defended the cave were so smothered as they 
rendered themselves, with their plate, money, 
13 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

and other goods therein hidden." From 
this it appears that many of his excursions 
were predatory, and that cruelties were prac- 
tised which would not be tolerated now. 
His subsequent career in Ireland, to which 
reference will be made in the next chapter, 
shows that he must have passed through 
scenes that hardened him to the appeals of 
suffering humanity. But, together with his 
comrades, he fought "with his neck in a 
noose," so to speak, certain to be hanged 
if captured, and expecting no mercy from 
his opponents. Although he does not di- 
rectly refer to that consummation of hor- 
rors, the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, he is 
known to have been in France when it took 
place, in 1572; and if he should be found in- 
tolerant toward the sect that instigated and 
the people who perpetrated it, the reason is 
not far to seek. 



II 

SIR WALTER AND SIR HUMPHREY 
1576-1580 

WALTER RALEIGH had a true and 
steadfast friend in his half - brother, 
Humphrey Gilbert, who was thirteen years 
his senior. Pie it was, perhaps, who turned 
Walter's attention to maritime affairs ; though 
this was scarcely necessary, since Devon was 
the home of seafarers, as explained alread^^ 
who were the mainstays of England's navy. 
This navy was not a very large one at the 
time the boys were growing up, consisting, 
well into Queen Elizabeth's reign, of less 
than twenty war- ships. But the merchant 
marine was growing apace, and the sturdy 
sailors who made voyages to every known 
port of Europe, and sometimes to Africa, 
were destined to be important factors in the 
building up of Britain. 

Humphrey Gilbert was a second son, and 
had not inherited as large a fortune as his 
15 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

elder brother, but his education was care- 
fully attended to by his mother. He passed 
through Eton and Oxford, and, after a short 
season devoted to studying law, turned to 
the more congenial pursuit of navigation and 
the art of war. He became proficient in 
both sciences, also in cosmography, and as 
early as 1566 had written a "Discourse of 
Discovery for a New Passage to Cathay," 
which is said to have incited Martin Frobisher 
to make his voyage in search of a northwest 
passage to India and China. 

In 157 1 he entered Parliament, and in 
1572, while Raleigh was still in France, he 
went as a soldier to the Netherlands, whither 
Walter followed him about four years later. 
These two, however, were not there together, 
as Raleigh did not return to England from 
France until 1575. Both were in Ireland, 
engaged in bloody strife with the natives of 
that persecuted island, but, also, at periods 
a few years apart. They did not join in a 
common enterprise imtil 1577 or 1578, when 
Humphrey, having secured a charter from 
the Queen, set about verifying his theory of 
a northwestern passage by a voyage to New- 
foundland and be^^ond. 

The year previous he had written a treatise 
i6 



SIR WALTER AND SIR HUMPHREY 

for the Queen, informing her how the Span- 
iards might be fallen upon under pretence 
of a voyage of discovery. Sir Humphrey, 
like Sir Walter, was possessed of the idea 
that Spain was an enemy to be met and 
overcome in the distant seas which she had 
discovered and claimed exclusive rights in. 
A captain of a ship engaged with Humphrey 
in this voyage to America sets forth Eng- 
land's opportunities as follows: "It seemeth 
probable, by event or precedent attempts 
made by the Spanyards and the French at 
sundry times, that the countreys lying north 
of Florida God hath reserved to be reduced 
unto Christian civility by the English na- 
tion. For, not long after that Christopher 
Columbus had discovered the islands of the 
West Indies for Spayne, lohn and Sebastian 
Cabot made discovery of the rest, from 
Florida northwards, in behalf of England. 
Sir Humfrey Gilbert, knight, was the first of 
our nation that carried people to erect an 
habitation and government in those north- 
erly countreys of America. About which, 
albeit he had consumed much substance (and 
lost his life at the last, his people also perish- 
ing for the most part), yet the mystery 
whereof we must leave to God." 
17 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

In 1578, then, Sir Humphrey sailed for 
America with seven ships and three hundred 
and fifty men. One of the vessels, the Fal- 
con, was commanded by Raleigh, who had 
doubtless received information of the Flori- 
das, when he was in France, from Admiral 
Coligny, whose colony of Huguenots was 
massacred there in 1565. Disasters in gen- 
eral met the fleet from the first, and Raleigh's 
ship was separated from the rest on the 
coast of Africa. Sailing for the West Indies, 
he met and took a Spanish frigate, after a 
brisk sea-fight, but was unable to bring her 
to port, and so returned to England without 
her. From this adventure toward America 
Raleigh emerged with the loss of some cap- 
ital, and yet with his faith unshaken in the 
eventual success of such enterprises. 

England had done hardly anything tow- 
ard following up the discoveries of the Ca- 
bots, though the erudite historian, Hakluyt, 
attempted to prove her title to America 
unimpeachable, "owing to the admitted 
fact that we of England were the first dis- 
coverers of the continent, above a yere and 
more before Columbus — to wit: in 1496." 

The accounts of the Cabot voyages had 
become mere traditions when Hakluyt gath- 
18 



SIR WALTER AND SIR HUMPHREY 

ered them into his great work — and that was 
some time after Sir Humphrey's first voyage 
— so that it is due to this great navigator, as 
well as Walter Raleigh, to more than men- 
tion their attempt at exploration in the 
year 1578. ''Raleigh and Hakluyt," says 
Sir Clements Markham, ''were virtually the 
founders of those colonies which eventually 
formed the United States. Americans revere 
the name of Walter Raleigh ; they should give 
an equal place to that of Richard Hakluyt." 
Nor should we forget to include that intrepid 
navigator Sir Humphrey Gilbert. 

The voyage of 1578 ended disastrously; 
but Raleigh, who was by this time expert in 
maritime affairs, would fain have embarked 
again with his half-brother Humphrey, heart 
and soul, in any enterprise looking toward 
discovery and colonization in the country 
only half revealed by the Cabots. But first 
he was to expend much energy and waste 
several of the best years of his life in bar- 
barous warfare. France and the Nether- 
lands had been his field of emprise during 
youth, but his maturer years were to be given 
over to the pursuit of Queen Elizabeth's re- 
bellious subjects, the " Irishry," as they were 
contemptuously called by the English. He 

3 - 19 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

received a commission as captain, under 
Lord Grey of Wilton, then Lord Deputy of 
Ireland, who set him an example in cruelty 
which he unhappily followed. 

This service in Ireland, he wrote the Earl 
of Leicester, in 1581, he "would disdayne as 
much as to keep sheape"; yet he entered 
heartily into it, and seemed to feel no com- 
punctions at the barbarous methods em- 
ployed in subduing the rebels. In another 
letter of this time he commends the rela- 
tively humane policy of his half-brother, 
Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who had previously 
subdued them without resorting to extreme 
measures, but he evidently did not emulate 
him. Meeting, on one of his forays, with an 
Irish peasant bearing a backload of withes, 
he asked him for what purpose they were 
gathered. 

"To hang English churls with," answered 
the man, facing him dauntlessly. 

"Ha!" exclaimed Raleigh. "Perhaps we 
may forestall thee," and at once gave orders 
for the man to be strangled with his own 
withes, as also some comrades who, like him, 
were rebels. 

In after years, having made acquaintance 
with sorrow and misfortune, Raleigh would 
20 



SIR WALTER AND SIR HUMPHREY 

have set at liberty a man capable of such a 
sturdy answer; but in the first years of his 
soldiering he was undoubtedly thoughtless 
and cruel. Other deeds of his give color to 
this assertion. A party of Spaniards and 
Italians, which included many released con- 
victs and ruffians, had invaded Ireland, with 
the intent of succoring their coreligionists, 
and had built a fort which they called Del 
Oro. It was at about the time of its com- 
pletion that Raleigh received an appoint- 
ment to command at its siege. He dis- 
tinguished himself by his gallant bearing in 
the face of danger, fighting valorously with 
his men in the trenches, stimulating them 
repeatedly by his brave example; but, alas! 
he stained his hands with the blood of his 
opponents after they had surrendered as 
prisoners of war. Six hundred of the gar- 
rison were brutally massacred, and the rec- 
ords of the time have not held Commander 
Raleigh guiltless of the bloody transaction. 
Raleigh's experience in France and the 
Netherlands, especially in the former coun- 
try, now stood him in good stead, and by 
means of sudden forays, ambushes, and skil- 
fully planned attacks, he kept the rebels in 
a state of constant consternation. His dash 

21 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

and gallantry moved him to the wildest ex- 
ploits, in one of which he had his horse shot 
under him, and was saved from death only 
by the prompt interposition of a soldier, 
who risked his life to rescue that of his be- 
loved commander. The most romantic and 
hazardous of his numerous adventures was 
that in which he succeeded in capturing a 
powerful Irish chieftain, Lord Roche, and 
transporting him in custody to Cork, where 
he then had his headquarters. 

This insurgent nobleman held sway at his 
castle of Bally, about twenty miles from 
Cork, and as he was a suspected promoter of 
disaffection, being surrounded by a formid- 
able force of adherents also, it was resolved 
by the Earl of Ormond, Raleigh's superior 
at that time, to effect his capture, if such 
a thing were possible. The ardent Raleigh 
offered his services, which were accepted, 
and, taking a small body of faithful soldiers, 
he set out on a night march into the enemy's 
country. He had hoped to keep his foray 
a secret from the Irish, but their spies, with 
whom the land was swarming, gave informa- 
tion to the Seneschal of Imokelly, one Fitz 
Edmonds, who gathered together a band of 
eight hundred men and laid an ambuscade, 

22 



SIR WALTER AND SIR HUMPHREY 

intending to waylay Raleigh on the road. 
The wary commander, however, also had 
spies, who warned him in season, and by a 
long detour this peril was avoided. When 
arrived in the vicinage of Bally he was met 
by a rabble of tenantry and townsmen, 
nearly five hundred in number, with whom 
he first held parley, and then, detaching 
the main body of his soldiers to hold them in 
check, with a handful of the most intrepid 
he made a dash for the castle. He was met 
at the gate with a refusal to his demand for 
permission to enter, but by stratagem suc- 
ceeded in getting six of his followers within, 
and soon after the remainder of his horsemen 
came clattering into the court, having dis- 
persed the tenantry and forced their way 
to the castle. 

Finding his court -yard full of armed Eng- 
lishmen, Lord Roche bowed to the inevitable 
and proffered Raleigh his hospitality, which 
was promptly accepted. At the bountiful 
board, around which were seated Raleigh, a 
few of his retainers, and Lord Roche and his 
family, the nobleman professed the most 
devoted loyalty to the Queen; but finally, 
finding that his uninvited guest was in- 
flexibly resolved upon taking him to Cork, 

2Z 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

consented to accompany him thither pro- 
vided he might have time to arrange his 
affairs and proceed by dayHght. But there 
was no denying the valiant young EngHsh- 
man, who, though courteous and deferential 
in his bearing, was determined to set out 
with his prisoner that very night. He, too, 
well knew the perils of delay and the im- 
possibility of proceeding through the open 
country by daylight, swarming, as it was cer- 
tain to be, with a furious populace armed 
with rude but effective weapons which they 
well knew how to wield. 

The night was dark, but Raleigh, knowing 
that ambuscades would be set for him along 
the only highway, led his men over a narrow 
and rugged trail among the hills, in following 
which several were badly injured by falls 
and one was killed. But he succeeded in 
reaching Cork, with his prisoner, unscathed, 
and had the pleasure of presenting him to 
Lord Ormond as a trophy of his prowess. 
This gallant though rash exploit gained great 
fame for Walter Raleigh in Ireland, where a 
feat of arms so skilfully carried out could 
not but compel the admiration even of his 
enemies. The fame of it also reached the 
English court, for, at the departure of Lord 
24 



SIR WALTER AND SIR HUMPHREY 

Ormond, he was, together with two others, 
given the government of Munster. He held 
it till near the end of December, 1581, when, 
having subjugated the most troublesome of 
the rebels, he was permitted to return to 
England. 

In February, 1582, we find him as one of 
the convoy of the Due d'Alengon to the 
Netherlands, and two months later a 
''Queen's Warrant" was issued appointing 
him a captain in Ireland, "Where," it quaint- 
ly reads, ''we be given to understand that 
Captain Appesley is not long since deceased, 
and the band of footmen, which he had, com- 
mitted to James Fenton, — For that, as We 
are informed, the said Fenton hath other- 
wise an entertainment by a certain ward un- 
der his charge; but chiefly that Our pleas- 
ure is to have Our servant, Walter Rawley, 
trained some time longer in that Our realme 
for his better experience in martial affairs, 
and for the special care that We have to do 
him good, in respect of his kindred that 
have served Us, some of them near about 
Our person; these are to require you that 
the leading of the said band may be commit- 
ted to the said Rawley." For reasons best 
known to the Queen herself, the "said Raw- 

25 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

ley" was allowed to remain in England for 
a period longer, and it is doubtful if he re- 
turned to Ireland during several years there- 
after, ''for that he is, for some considera- 
tions, by Us excused to stay here." 



Ill 

QUEEN Elizabeth's favorite 
1582 

WHAT were the ''considerations" that 
induced the Queen to retain Raleigh 
in England, and when did that intimate 
acquaintance begin which endured between 
them so many years? These are questions 
that have never been satisfactorily answered ; 
but it is thought, as respects the friendship 
that existed between the great Elizabeth 
and her handsome courtier, that it had its 
commencement sometime in the year 1582. 

The Queen had known of him, and favor- 
ably, before his return from Ireland; but 
did their personal acquaintance begin in 
the romantic manner narrated by the old 
historian, when, one day encountering her 
Majesty, attended by her courtiers, in a 
marshy, spot, he threw his rich velvet coat 
upon the ground for her to walk over ? This 
act would be characteristic of Raleigh, as 
27 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

we shall later come to know him, for he was 
by nature an adroit flatterer, and cultivated 
the arts of a courtier so skilfully that for a 
long period the Queen was fain to consider 
him her most devoted admirer. 

Another anecdote, and by some consider- 
ed ''equally apocryphal" with that already 
cited, relates that ''among the second causes 
of Raleigh's growth . . . that variance be- 
tween him and the Lord Grey in his descent 
into Ireland was a principal, for it drew 
them both over to the council-table, where 
he had much the better in the telling of his 
tale, and so much that the Queen and the 
lords took no small mark of the man and his 
parts. Thus," continues the narrator, who 
was a personal acquaintance of our hero, 
"Raleigh had gotten the Queen's ear at a 
trice, and she began to be taken with his 
elocution, and loved to hear him give his 
reasons to her demands, and the truth is 
she took him for a kind of oracle, which 
nettled them all." 

"Fain would I climb, but yet fear I to 
fall," Raleigh is said to have scratched with 
a diamond upon a window-pane of the 
palace, to which, it is related, the Queen 
added: "If thy heart fail thee, then climb 
28 



QUEEN ELIZABETH'S FAVORITE 

not at all." His heart did not fail, whether 
the inscriptions were as apocryphal as the 
story of the cloak, or were ever traced, in- 
deed. He ''climbed" to some advantage, 
too, and rapidly made his way into the 
Queen's affections. There was a great dis- 
parity of years between these two, as well 
as of temperament, for Elizabeth had been 
born in 1533 and Raleigh in 1552. Thus, 
the half of an ordinary span of life separated 
them; yet the glamour around the person 
of the Queen more than compensated, in 
the eyes of the young soldier, for her lack 
of physical charms. 

Walter Raleigh at that time, says a con- 
temporary, was a model of manly beauty. 
" He had a good presence in a handsome and 
well - compacted person; a strong, natural 
wit and a better judgment ; with a bold and 
plausible tongue, whereby he could set out 
his parts to the best advantage." He was 
six feet in height, admirably proportioned, 
graceful and dignified in his carriage, with 
features symmetrically moulded. His fore- 
head was broad and capacious, his eyes 
bright and sparkling, his hair dark and 
abundant; and as he was always animated 
and audacious when in the presence of the 
29 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

Queen, he became, as a Flemish Jesuit ex- 
pressed it, "the darHng of this English Cleo- 
patra," who often craved the presence of 
bright faces about her. His ready wit was 
grateful, too, for the vain and frivolous 
Elizabeth could appreciate mental attributes 
as well as external adornments. 

We know, from the portraits that have 
been preserved of Raleigh, that he carried 
dress and decoration to the pitch of ab- 
surdity, and that his stalwart figure was 
frequently attired in a manner more befitting 
a clown or a mountebank than a sensible 
soldier who had fought valiantly in the wars. 
One full-length portrait represents him in a 
pinked vest of white satin, with a gorgeously 
flowered brown doublet embroidered in 
pearls, a hat with a black feather decorated 
with a ruby, a bejewelled dagger on his right 
hip, a sword-belt, pearl-besprinkled, round 
his waist, and on his feet buff -colored shoes 
tied with white ribbons. In another he is 
clad in his famous armor, which was of such 
exquisite workmanship that after his exe- 
cution it was considered worthy of being 
preserved in the Tower of London. It was 
of silver, studded with gems, and the sword 
and belt which Raleigh wore when in armor 
30 



QUEEN ELIZABETH'S FAVORITE 

were decorated with diamonds, pearls, and 
rubies. Sometimes the shoes he wore (a 
foreign ambassador at the EngHsh court 
averred) were "so bedecked with jewels that 
they were computed to be worth more than 
six hundred pieces of gold." 

Elizabeth, however, expected her gaudily- 
clad courtiers to transform themselves in a 
twinkling into armor-clad men of war, and 
it was doubtless the combination of the two 
in Raleigh that attracted her attention. 

It was probably Raleigh's own fault that, 
though he won favor of the Queen, she never 
entirely gave him her confidence. She was 
attracted by his fine features and figure, his 
gaudy costumes, his brilliant personality, 
and his exceptional talents, but to the in- 
ner councils he was rarely admitted. He 
was, at thirty years of age and beyond, still 
the flippant courtier, the reckless, dare- 
devil soldier, and many were the affrays 
in which he participated with the hangers-on 
at court. Under a date previous to his rise 
to royal favor, it is recorded in the "council- 
book of the court," that '' Sir Thomas Perrott 
and Walter Rawley, gentlemen, being called 
before their Lordships, for a fray betwixt 
them, were, by their Lordships' order, corn- 
s' 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

mitted prisoners to the Fleet.'' A week later 
it is recorded in the same book: ''This day, 
Sir Thomas Perrott, knight, and Walter 
Rawley, gentleman, being called before their 
Lordships, and commanded to bring sureties 
the day following, to enter into bonds with 
them for keeping of Her Majesty's peace, 
the one towards the other, and in the 
mean season to demean themselves quietly, 
were released of their imprisonment in the 
Fleet." 

This, to his discredit be it stated, was the 
first entry of Walter Raleigh's name in the 
''council register"; but this committal to 
prison was not by any means his last, for he 
later languished there in peril of his life, and 
for reasons not so directly traceable to his 
own folly. The doors of the historic Fleet 
seemed always ajar for the brawling young- 
lings of Elizabeth's court, and three years 
after they closed upon Raleigh's companion 
in the brawl, Sir Thomas Perrott, who had 
offended the jealous Queen by marrying 
Lady Dorothy Devereux, sister of the Earl 
of Essex. Under similar circumstances — 
as we shall later see — Walter Raleigh him- 
self was sent to prison by Elizabeth, who 
could brook no rival in the field of love, and 
32 



QUEEN ELIZABETH'S FAVORITE 

punished severely those of her admirers who 
ventured to marry without her sanction. 

At the time of Raleigh's advent at court, 
the Queen was, or seemed to be, infatuated 
with the Earl of Leicester, who was more 
than suspected of having poisoned his young 
and beautiful wife, the unfortunate Amy 
Robsart; not to mention other crimes of 
which he was accused. His deplorable 
morals, however, seemed to be no bar to 
his advancement, though the Queen's affec- 
tion for him was not so deep that she could 
not attach a portion of his estate, after his 
decease, in order to reimburse herself for a 
debt he owed her at the time of his death. 

Though conscious of the insecurity of his 
position as Queen's favorite, Leicester is said 
to have introduced Walter Raleigh to Eliza- 
beth. Becoming alarmed at the rapid ad- 
vances made by the younger man in the 
estimation of the Queen, he endeavored to 
offset them by the introduction of a still 
younger, with the result that this new rival 
far surpassed either of his old competitors 
in the race for honors and royal regard. 
This gentleman was Robert Devereux, the 
Earl of Essex, whose descent was as rapid 
as his advancement, and who finally paid 
33 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

the penalty of his temerity and folly by an 
ignominious death upon the scaffold. The 
intimacy of Leicester and Raleigh at the 
outset may be inferred by a letter written 
by the latter to the former while tempo- 
rarily in supposed disgrace and absent from 
the court. ''The Queen," he says, **is on 
very good terms with you, and, thanks be 
to God, well pacified. You are again her 
'Sweet Robin.'" 

The royal charmer of these distinguished 
men is described by one who saw her frequent- 
ly as "of personage tall, of hair and com- 
plexion fair, and therewithal well-favored, 
but high-nosed; of limbs and feature neat, 
of a stately and majestic comportment." 
He added — what the world well knows — 
that she favored more her father, the in- 
famous Henry VIII., than her mother, the 
unfortunate Anne Boleyn. In her passions 
also, as well as her masculine character and 
physical nature, Elizabeth resembled her 
father more than the lovely Anne, whom 
that cruel father caused to be executed 
when she herself was but an infant. 

A Venetian ambassador, who saw her 
when not quite twenty-two, testified to this 
paternal resemblance as being more striking 
34 



QUEEN ELIZABETH'S FAVORITE 

than in her sister, ''Bloody Mary." ''Her 
face may rather be called pleasing than 
beautiful," he says. "She is tall and well 
made. Her complexion is fine, although 
somewhat tawny. Her eyes, and still more 
her hands — which she takes care not to 
hide — are of special beauty." She was, 
with reason, proud of her shapely hands, 
and a young Frenchman, who paints a word- 
picture of her at maturity, says: "I heard 
from my father that at every audience he 
had with her she pulled off her gloves more 
than a hundred times, to display her hands, 
which were, indeed, very beautiful and very 
white." 

Such was the Circe who had enchained 
Walter Raleigh, who had bound him to her 
throne with silken fetters which she could 
sever at will but he could not. Not by her 
charms had she caught and held him (for 
they were less than ordinarily possessed by 
ladies of gentle birth), but by royal prestige 
and authority. To her he sacrificed his man- 
hood, for her he committed deeds which 
should have brought the blush of shame to 
his handsome face, and she rewarded him 
most generously. 

In the years 1582, 1583, and 1584 he 
4 35 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

received very profitable grants and licenses, 
such as leave to export broadcloths, the 
vending of wines, etc., which yielded him a 
large yearly revenue. The grant for the 
"farm of wines," as the monopoly of these 
licenses was called, he underlet to another 
at seven hundred pounds a year; and this 
was but one of his privileges, so that he 
soon grew wealthy, indeed, and set up an 
establishment as became a gentleman of 
substance. 

It mattered not to Raleigh that these 
monopolies were oppressive to the people 
at large, that many victims paid under pro- 
test, and many others sought to evade what 
they justly considered a burdensome and 
superfluous tax. He exacted every pound 
that was his due, and, by means of holding 
his emissaries strictly to account, managed 
to extract a revenue of more than twelve 
hundred pounds a year from this privilege 
granted him by the Queen. 

In July, 1585, he was given the important 
and lucrative office of Lord Warden of the 
Stanneries, or tin mines, and in September 
of that year was made lieutenant of the 
county of Cornwall. A few months later 
he became vice-admiral of the counties of 
36 



QUEEN ELIZABETH'S FAVORITE 

Cornwall and Devon, with Lord Beauchamp 
as his deputy in the first county and Sir John 
Gilbert in the second. Though he farmed 
out his various licenses of wines and cloths, 
and governed in the main by deputies, he 
yet gave strict attention to his duties in their 
larger sense, mastering every detail, and 
issuing regulations which, especially as re- 
gards the mines of Cornwall, were very 
beneficial. 

By the attainder of Anthony Babington, 
a convicted conspirator against the crown, 
who was executed for treason, Raleigh be- 
came, in 1586-87, a ''landed gentleman in 
five English counties," for the Queen be- 
stowed upon him all the forfeited properties 
of the traitor. He thus acquired three 
manors in Lincolnshire, besides lands and 
tenements in the same county; the manor of 
Lee, in Derbyshire; other lands and tene- 
ments in various villages, and the fine man- 
sion known as Babington's Hall, together 
with the broad acres around it. He had 
boasted hitherto of a small patrimony only, 
situated in Devonshire; but now, by bounty 
of the Queen, he became possessed of this 
vast property, together with **all rents, 
profits, and revenues coming to Us by the 
37 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

said attainder." And they were for ''the 
proper use and behoof of him, the said Walter 
Ralegh, his heirs and assigns, forever; with- 
out any acknowledgment to be therefore ren- 
dered unto Us, our heirs or successors." 

This was not the last token of royal favor 
which Raleigh received, nor the last for- 
feited estate he was destined to succeed to, 
through the defection of its rightful owner; 
but at the end — ^before it came, in truth — ^he 
was to lose, not alone the favor of royalty, 
but every acre that had been bestowed upon 
him through favoritism and every dwelling 
he had owned. 



IV 

A PROMOTER OF DISCOVERY 
1583 

AS a text for this chapter of Walter 
i\ Raleigh's life, we will take the following 
letter, written by him to Sir Humphrey 
Gilbert, in March, 1583: 

" Brother, — I have sent you a token from Her 
Majesty, an ancor [anchor] guided by a lady, as 
you see; and farther, her Highness willed me to 
sende you worde that she wished you as great good- 
hap and safety to your ship, as if her sealf were 
there in person ; desiring you to have care of your 
sealf, as of that which she tendereth, and therefore, 
for her sake, you must provide for it accordingly. 

"Farther, she commandeth that you leve your 
picture with me. For the rest, I leve till our 
meeting, or to the report of this berer [bearer], 
who would needs be the messenger of this good 
newse. So I commit you to the will and pro- 
tection of God, who sends us such Hfe or death, 
as He shall please, or hath appointed. 

" Richmonde, this Friday morning. 

"Your treu brother, W. Ralegh." 

"To my brother, Sir Humfrey Gilbert, Knight." 
39 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

The token of the Queen's approbation and 
regard, which she sent Sir Humphrey Gilbert 
by the hand of his brother, was a small 
anchor of beaten gold with a precious pearl 
in its peak. It was esteemed so highly by 
its recipient that he ever after wore it on his 
breast; and it went with him to the watery 
grave which ended this voyage and his 
earthly career. This token typified, both the 
Queen's esteem of the gallant mariner, and 
the love of his half-brother Walter Raleigh, 
through whose influence he had obtained his 
charter for discovery and colonization. 

We owe our knowledge of this venture of 
1583 to a captain and owner of the Golden 
Hinde, one of the five vessels which com- 
prised the fleet that set sail from Plymouth 
harbor.^ Says the mariner: 

*"A Report of the Voyage and success thereof, 
attempted in the yeere of our Lord 1 583 , by sir Humf rey 
Gilbert, knight, with other gentlemen assisting him in 
that action, intended to discover and to plant Christian 
inhabitants in places convenient, upon those large and 
ample countreys extended northwards from the Cape 
of Florida, lying under very temperate climes, esteemed 
fertile and rich in minerals, yet not in actual pos- 
session of any Christian prince; written by M. Edward 
Haies, gentleman, and principal actor in the same voy- 
age, who alone continued unto the end, and by God's 
special assistance returned home with his retinue safe 
and entire." 

40 



A PROMOTER OF DISCOVERY 

" Orders having been determined and prom- 
ises mutually given to be observed, every man 
withdrew himself e unto his charge. The ank- 
ers being already weyed, and our shippes un- 
der saile, having a soft gale of winde, we be- 
gan our voyage upon Tuesday, the eleventh 
day of lune, in the yere of our Lord, 1583, 
having in our fleet these shippes, whose names 
and burthens, with the names of the captaines 
and masters of them, I have also inserted, as 
folio weth : 

''i. The Delight, burthen 100 tunnes, was 
Admirall [or flag-ship], in which went the 
Generall [Humphrey Gilbert], William Win- 
ter, captaine and part owner, and Richard 
Clearke, master. 

''2. The Barke Ralegh, set forth by M. 
Walter Ralegh, of the burthen of 200 tunnes, 
was then Vice Admirall; in which went M. 
Butler, captaine, and Robert Davis, of Bris- 
tol, master. 

"3. The Golden Hinde, burthen 40 tunnes, 
was then Reare Admirall, in which went 
Edward Hayes, captaine and owner [chron- 
icler of the voyage], and Wm. Cox, of Lime- 
house, master. 

"4. The Swallow, burthen 40 tunnes; in 
her was captaine Maurice Browne. 

"5. The Sqnirrill, of burthen 10 ttmnes, 
in which went captaine Wm. Andrewes, and 
one Cade, master. 

41 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

"We were in number about 260 men: 
among them we had of every faculty good 
choice, as shipwrights, masons, carpenters, 
smithes, and such Hke, requisite to such an 
action [the founding of a colony] ; also mineral 
men and refiners. Besides, for solace of our 
people, and allurement of the salvages, we 
were provided of musike in good variety; 
not omitting the least toyes, as morris 
dancers, hobby horses, and like conceits, to 
delight the salvages, whom we intended to 
winne by all faire meanes possible. And 
to that end we were indifferently furnished 
of all petty haberdasherie wares, to barter 
with those people. 

" In this manner we set forward, departing 
(as hath bene said) out the eleventh day of 
lune, being Tuesday, the weather and winde 
faire and good all day ; but a great storme of 
thunder and winde fell the same night. The 
Thursday following, when we hailed one 
another in the evening (according to the 
order given before starting), they signified 
unto us out of the Vice Admirall, that both 
the captaine and very many of the men were 
fallen sicke. And about midnight the Vice 
Admirall forsooke us, notwithstanding we 
had the winde East, faire and good. But it 
was after credibly reported that they were 
infected with a contagious sicknesse, and 
arrived greatly distressed at Plymouth. The 
42 



A PROMOTER OF DISCOVERY 

reason I could never understand, but sure I 
am no cost was spared by their owner, Master 
Ralegh, in setting them forth. Therefore 
I leave it unto God." 

Highly indignant at this desertion, and of 
course unaware of the cause, Admiral Gilbert 
afterward wrote to Sir George Peckham, in 
England : " I departed from Plymouth on the 
nth of Jime, with five sail, and on the 13th 
the Ark Ralegh ran from me, in fair and clear 
weather, having a large wind. I pray you 
solicit my brother Ralegh to make them an 
example to all knaves!" 

Four ships were then left to him, and soon 
after one of these was lost, leaving but three 
in which to pursue the voyage to Newfound- 
land, which was sighted the last week in 
July. The narrative continues : 

" On the Monday following the General had 
his tent set up, who, being accompanied by his 
own followers, summoned the mar chants and 
masters, both English and strangers, to be 
present at his taking possession of those 
countreys. Before whom was openly read 
and interpreted tmto the strangers his Com- 
mission, by virtue whereof he tooke posses- 
sion in the harbor of S. lohn, and 200 leagues 
everyway invested the Queene's maiestie 
43 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

with the title and dignities thereof, and had 
delivered unto him (after the custome of 
England) a rod and a turfEe of the same soil, 
entering possession also for him, his heires, 
and assignes forever. . . . And afterward 
were erected, not farre from that place, the 
Armes of England, ingraven in lead, and in- 
fixed upon a pillar of wood." 

The Admiral assigned lands to those who 
had been brought out as colonists, and after 
a scant exploration of the region's resources, 
during which the mineralogist discovered 
what he thought was ore of silver, the ships 
sailed southward along the coast. Although 
Gilbert had found the ships of other nations 
than England, such as French and Portu- 
guese, fishing in the waters of Newfound- 
land, and making harbor in its bays, he took 
possession of the country by right of title 
to it acquired (as already explained) , through 
the voyage of the Cabots in the previous 
century. After an interval of nearly ninety 
years, his skeleton of a colony was the first 
established there. Too easily satisfied with 
this apology for a settlement, and accepting 
without question the statement of his ''min- 
eral man" that the ore he had found was rich 
in silver. Sir Humphrey sailed off on the very 
44 



A PROMOTER OF DISCOVERY 

course taken by his predecessors, the Cabots. 
He could lay claim to no new discovery, to 
no novel enterprise, yet he seemed satisfied. 

We will not follow him in his farther 
wanderings, which were devious and seem- 
ingly without aim. They show that he was 
erratic, that his great reputation for sea- 
manship was altogether unfounded, for in 
this voyage he lost three of his ships, and 
eventually his life, through the lack of pre- 
cautions which any ordinary mariner should 
have taken. We come now to the end of 
this brave man's life, following the narrative 
from which we have quoted. Having met 
with head winds and storms, the Admiral 
had abandoned his purpose of continuing 
southward along the coast of America, and in 
the last week of August shaped his course for 
England. But two vessels remained of the fleet 
of five with which he had set forth the pre- 
vious June — the Golden Hinde and the Squirrel. 

From some caprice, when distant from 
the coast a hundred leagues or so, he in- 
sisted upon transferring himself from the 
larger vessel to the smaller. His friends 
entreated him not to do so, but in vain, for 
this was his answer: *'I will not forsake my 
little company, going homeward, with whom 
45 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

I have passed so many storms and perils." 
"And in very truth," says an eye-witness 
of the events now to be described, "hee was 
urged to be so over hard because of reports 
given out that he was afraid of the sea; 
albeit this was rather rashness than advised 
resolution: to preferre the wind of a vain 
report to the weight of his own life. And 
it was God's ordinance upon him, even so 
the vehement perswasion and intreatie of 
his friends could nothing availe to divert 
him of a wilful resolution of going through 
in his frigat (the little Squirrel, of only ten 
tons burthen). It was overcharged upon its 
decks with artillerie, and too cumbersome for 
so small a boate, that was to pass through the 
Ocean sea at that season of the yere, when by 
course we might expect much storme of foule 
weather — whereof indeed we had enough. 

' ' Seeing that he would not bend to reason, 
he had provision out of the Hinde, such as 
was wanting aboord his frigat. And so we 
committed him to God's protection, and set 
him aboard his pinnesse." The two vessels 
kept on together, speaking each other at 
intervals until they passed the latitude of 
the Azore Islands, when they met with very 
foul weather and terrible seas, "breaking 
46 



A PROMOTER OF DISCOVERY 

short and high, pyramid wise," which sepa- 
rated them for a space, and put their crews 
in peril of their Hves. ''Howsoever it com- 
meth to pass," wrote the honest chronicler 
of the voyage, "men which all their lives had 
occupied the sea never saw more outragious 
seas. We had also upon our main-yard an 
apparition of fire by night, which seamen 
doe call 'Castor and Pollux.' But we had 
only one, which they take an evil sign of more 
tempest, the same being usual in storms." 

Now and again, as the storm-mists parted, 
those on the Hinde caught glimpses of the 
imperilled Squirrel, gallantly battling with 
the heavy seas, which threatened to over- 
whelm her entirely. "Munday, the ninth 
of September, in the afternoone, the frigat 
was neere cast away, oppressed by waves, 
yet at that time recovered. And giving 
foorth signes of joy, the Generall, sitting 
abaft with a book in his hand, cried out to 
us in the Hinde (so oft as we did approch 
within hearing) : ' We are as neere to Heaven 
by sea as by land!' Reiterating the same 
speech, well beseeming a souldier resolute 
in lesus Christ, as I can testifie he was. 

"The same Munday night, about twelve 
of the clock, or not long after, the frigat 
47 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

being ahead of us in the Golden Hinde, sud- 
denly her hghts went out, whereof, as it were 
in a moment, we lost sight of them, and 
withall our watch cryed out: 'The Generall 
is cast away!' — which was so true, for in that 
moment the frigat was devoured, and swal- 
lowed up of the sea. Yet still we looked out 
all that night, and ever after, untill we ar- 
rived upon the coast of England." 

In this manner perished Sir Humphrey 
Gilbert, gallantly, though stubbornly, in- 
sisting upon sharing the perils of the great 
deep with his devoted men in the smallest 
craft remaining of the fleet. His expedition 
had met with disaster from the very first: 
by the casting away of his flag-ship he had 
lost all his charts, memoranda relating to the 
resources of the region, and the precious 
silver ore, together with the mineralogist, 
upon whose authority it had been declared 
genuine and of great value; yet he had con- 
tinued hopeful to the last. 

He declared he would fit out and return 
with another expedition the following year, 
at the opening of the summer season, and 
expressed his confidence in securing, through 
his brother at court, the assistance of the 
Queen. **Ten thousand pounds she will 
48 




SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT 



A PROMOTER OF DISCOVERY 

lend me," he said to his men; ''for she can- 
not do less, who gave to me this golden an- 
chor and the lady, which I wear upon my 
breast." In this belief he doubtless died, 
and upon his breast, at the moment he and 
his little craft were overwhelmed by the sea, 
was the golden anchor with a pearl in its 
peak, which had been given to him by his 
sovereign. 

Nothing resulted to the crews, nor to the 
merchants who had adventured with Gilbert 
and Raleigh in the enterprise. In the two 
voyages he had made, Sir Humphrey had 
wrecked his private fortune and sealed the 
sacrifice with his life; but his half-brother 
and coadventurer was by no means dis- 
mayed. Walter Raleigh mourned the loss 
of a faithful, devoted friend — a loss for which 
there was no reparation; but he did not 
abandon the enterprise for which Humphrey 
had given his life, nor lose sight of the end 
for which both had so long striven. 

He was the more impelled, if possible, to 
promote discoveries, but especially coloniza- 
tion, in the great country across the ocean, 
which at that time but a handful of his 
countrymen had visited. He had resolved, 
however, to strike farther southward than 
49 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

Humphrey had been, moved thereto, says 
the old chronicler, by the determination 
of Humphrey himself. When asked what 
means he had at his arrival in England "to 
compass the charges of so great a prepara- 
tion as he intended to make the next spring, 
having determined upon two fleetes, one for 
the South, another for the North, Humphrey 
had replied: 'Leave that to me. I will ask 
a pennie of no man. I will bring good tid- 
ings unto her Majesty, who will be so gracious 
as to lend me 10,000 pounds.' 

" WilHng us therefore to be of good cheere, 
for he did thank God, he sayd, with all his 
heart, for that he had seene, the same being 
enough for us all; and that we needed not 
to seeke any further. And these last words 
he would often repeate, with demonstrations 
of great fervencie of mind, being himself e 
very confident, and settled in beliefe of in- 
estimable good by his voyage." 



Raleigh's expedition to roanoke 
1584 

THE confidence felt by Humphrey Gil- 
bert in the eventual outcome of his 
voyages, if persisted in — that it would be 
to the betterment of England and the ex- 
tension of her power — was fully shared by 
Walter Raleigh. Intimately associated as 
he had been with his half-brother in these 
voyages, now that the gallant Admiral had 
perished he felt it incumbent upon himself 
to persist in the furtherance of others to the 
same effect — discovery and colonization. 

The hapless Sir Humphrey had, in fact, be- 
queathed to his kinsman the task of carrying 
on his great work, and Raleigh had no dis- 
position to shirk that task. He was, indeed, 
overzealous, the Queen thought, and for that 
reason had restrained him from accompany- 
ing Sir Humphrey on his second voyage. 
Knowing his rash nature and his hatred of 
s SI 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

the Spaniards, she had feared — ^what actually 
took place on the first voyage — an encounter 
with England's rivals on the ocean, and had 
forbidden him to leave her side — or, in other 
words, to run the risk of any "dangerous 
sea-fights," such as he was sure to seek if in 
command of ship or expedition. So he had 
languished at court, chagrined beyond meas- 
ure, but eager and expectant for the issue of 
the venture in which he had taken part to 
the extent of fitting out a vessel. The de- 
fection of the Ark Ralegh had added to his 
chagrin and disappointment; but the return 
of the only ship that survived, with its tid- 
ings of disaster, including the death of the 
Admiral and the total defeat of all his plans, 
somewhat reconciled him to his enforced 
detention. 

He did not take warning, however, from 
the ill success of that expedition and desist 
from further adventures, but, within six 
months after the return of the Golden Hinde, 
had obtained of the Queen a charter, with 
larger powers than those which had been 
granted Sir Humphrey, for the "Discovery 
and Planting of New Lands in America." 
Gilbert's charter of 1578 expired in 1584, and 
March 25th of that year Raleigh obtained 
52 



RALEIGH'S EXPEDITION TO ROANOKE 

his own, which, judging from its length, 
scope, and verbiage, was comprehensive 
enough to include the exploration and colo- 
nization of the entire globe. It read : 

''To all people to whom these presents 
shal come, greeting. Know ye that of our 
especial grace, certain science, and meere 
motion, we have given and graunted, and 
by these presents for us, our heires and suc- 
cessors, doe give and graunt, to our trusty 
and welbeloved servant Walter Ralegh Es- 
quire, and to his heires and assignes for 
ever, free liberty and license from time to 
time, and at all times for ever hereafter, to 
discover, search, finde out, and view such 
remote, heathen and barbarous lands, coun- 
tries and territories, not actually possessed 
by any Christian prince, nor inhabited by 
Christian people, as to him, his heires and 
assignes, and to every or any of them shal 
seeme good; and the same to have, holde, 
occupy & enjoy, to him, his heires and as- 
signes for ever; with all prerogatives, com- 
modities, jurisdictios, royalties, privileges, 
franchises and preeminences, thereto or 
thereabouts both by sea and land, whatso- 
ever we by our letters patents may graunt, 
and as we or our noble progenitors have 
heretofore graunted, to any person or per- 
sons, bodies politic or corporate; and the 

53 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

saide Walter Ralegh, his heires and assignes, 
and all such as from time to time, by licence 
of us, our heires and successors, shal goe or 
travaile thither to inhabite or remaine, 
there to builde and fortifie, at the discretion 
of the saide Walter Ralegh, his heires & 
assignes, the statutes or act of Parliament 
made against fugitives, or against such as 
shal depart, remaine or continue out of our 
Realme of England without licence, or any 
statute, act, law, or any ordinance whatso- 
ever to the contrary in any wise notwith- 
standing." 

The ink on this comprehensive charter 
(one-tenth of which only has been quoted) 
was scarcely dry before Raleigh assembled 
his fleet, consisting of two vessels, command- 
ed by Captains Philip Amadas and Arthur 
Barlow. It sailed the last week in April, 
and sighted land on the American coast the 
first week in July. According to the prevail- 
ing custom of navigators at that time sailing 
for the southern part of North America, the 
two mariners zigzagged across the Atlantic, 
first to the Canaries, then to the West Indies, 
finally feeling their way northward again 
to the region they had chosen for their 
destination. 

54 



RALEIGH'S EXPEDITION TO ROANOKE 

As a complete account exists of this in- 
teresting voyage, from the pen of Captain 
Barlow, we shall avail ourselves of it. It is 
contained in ''The First Voyage made to the 
Coasts of America, with two Barks, wherein 
were Captains M. Philip Amadas and M. 
Arthur Barlow, who discovered part of the 
countrey now called Virginia, Anno 1584. 
Written by One of the said Captaines and 
sent to Sir Walter Ralegh, Knight, at whose 
charge and Direction the said Voyage was 
set forth." 

This letter is addressed to Sir Walter 
Raleigh; for one of the first rewards of this 
expedition, furnished and promoted at his 
own cost, was the honor of knighthood, be- 
stowed by the doting Queen, in recognition 
of his labors and discovery, in 1584. In the 
estimation of Elizabeth, she could bestow 
no greater distinction than this; but, in ex- 
change for this paltry title, did not Raleigh 
bestow upon her an honor far greater when 
he named the newly discovered country 
Virginia f 

This is the mariner's narrative : 

''The 27th day of Aprill, in the yeere of 
our redemption, 1584, we departed the West 

55 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

of England, with two barkes well furnished 
with men and victuals, having received our 
last and perfect directions by your letters, 
confirming the former instructions and com- 
mandments delivered by yourselfe at our 
leaving the river of Thames. And I think 
it a matter both unnecessary, for the mani- 
fest discovery of the Countrey, as also for 
tediousnesse sake, to remember imto you 
the diurnall [log, or journal] of our course, 
sayling and returning; onely I have pre- 
sumed to present unto you this briefe dis- 
course, by which you may judge how profit- 
able this land is likely to succeede, as well 
to your selfe, by whose direction and charge, 
and by whose servantes, this our discoverie 
hath beene performed, as also to Her High- 
nesse [Elizabeth], and the Commonwealth, 
in which we hope your wisdome wilbe satis- 
fied, considering that as much by us hath 
bene brought to light, as by those smal 
meanes, and number of men we had, could 
any way have bene expected or hoped for. 

"The tenth of May we arrived at the 
Canaries, and the tenth of June in this present 
yere we were fallen in with the islands of 
the West Indies, keeping a more south- 
easterly course than was needful, because 
we doubted that the currents of the Bay of 
Mexico, disbogging betweene the Cape of 
Florida and Havana, had bene of greater 
56 



RALEIGH'S EXPEDITION TO ROANOKE 

force than afterwards we found it to bee. 
[That is, the current of the Gulf Stream 
was not so strong as [he had expected it 
to be, probably as reported by the Spanish 
pilots.] 

''At which Islands we found the ay re very 
unwholesome, and our men grew for the 
most part ill disposed; so that having re- 
freshed our selves with sweet water and 
fresh victuall, we departed the twelfth day 
of our arrivall there. These islands, with 
the rest adjoining, are so well known to your 
selfe and to many others, as I will not trouble 
you with the remembrance of them. 

"The second of luly we found shole 
water, where we smelt so sweet and so strong 
a smell, as if we had bene in the midst of 
some delicate garden, abounding with all 
kindes of odoriferous flowers, by which we 
were assured that land could not be farre 
distant ; so keeping a good watch, and bear- 
ing but slacke sayle, the fourth of the same 
moneth we arrived upon the coast, which we 
supposed to be a continent and firme lande, 
and we sayled along the same a hundred and 
twentie English miles, before we could finde 
any entrance or river issuing into the sea. 

"The first that appeared unto us we en- 
tered, though not without some difficultie, 
& cast anker about three harqubus [musket] 
shot within the haven's mouth; and after 

57 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

thanks given to God for our safe arrival 
thither, we manned the boats and went to 
view the lande adjoyning, and to take pos- 
session of the same, in the right of the 
Queene's most excellent majestie, and after 
delivered the same over to your use, accord- 
ing to her Majestie 's grant and letters patent, 
under her Highnesse's great seal. Which 
being performed, according to the cere- 
monies used in such enterprises, we viewed 
the land about us, being, where we first 
landed, very sandie and low towards the 
water's side, but so full of grapes, as the 
very beating and surge of the sea over- 
flowed them. Of these we found such 
plentie, as well there as in all places else, 
both on the sand and on the greene soile 
on the hills, in the plaines, on every littel 
shrubbe, as also climbing towardes the tops 
of high cedars, that I thinke in all the world 
the like abundance is not to be found: and 
myself, having seen those parts of Europe 
that most abound, find such differences as 
were incredible to be written." 



How many of the first visitors to the new 
continent were impressed with the beauties 
of the shores, the exuberant fertility of the 
soil, and the fragrance of the wild flowers 
wafted to them by the soft breezes from the 
S8 



RALEIGH'S EXPEDITION TO ROANOKE 

main ! From the arrival of Columbus in the 
West Indies to the landing of the Pilgrims 
at Plymouth, the journals of the voyagers 
are overflowing with expressions of pleasure 
and admiration. 

A few more than forty years after Amadas 
and Barlow made their landfall on the south- 
em coast of North America a band of Puri- 
tans skirting the north shore of Massachu- 
setts in the month of June, were equally 
extravagant in their praises of the "odorif- 
erous land." ''The nearer we came to the 
shore," wrote Elder Higginson, ''the more 
flowers in abundance, sometymes scattered 
abroad, sometymes joyned in sheets nine or 
ten yeards long, which we supposed to be 
brought from the low meadows by the tyde. 
... As we sayled along the coast we saw 
every hill and dale, and every island, full of 
gay woods and tall trees. Now, what with 
fine woods and green trees by land, and 
these yellow flowers paynting the sea, it 
made us all desirous of seeing our new Para- 
dise of New England, whence we perceived 
such forerunning signals of fertilitie afarre 
off." 

The island was about twenty miles in 
length and six in breadth, covered with 
59 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

"goodly woodes full of deer, conies, hares, 
and fowle in incredible abundance. Having 
discharged an arquebuse, such a fiocke of 
cranes (the most part white) arose around 
us, with such a cry, redoubled by many 
echoes, as if an army of men had showted 
all together." 

This passage recalls a similar one in the 
book of that arrant plagiarist, Daniel Defoe, 
when his hero, one Robinson Crusoe, dis- 
charges his gun in a thick wood and arouses 
a like commotion among the wild inhabi- 
tants, who (he reflects) , never having heard 
a sound of that sort before, were confused 
and astounded. Defoe wrote Robinson 
Crusoe more than a hundred years after the 
first description of Roanoke was published 
(one himdred and thirty-five, to be exact), 
and may have availed himself of this ac- 
count, as well as of other narratives then 
existent, for the purpose of embellishing 
with authentic incident and bestowing veri- 
similitude upon his fiction. 

"The island had many woodes — not such 
as you find in Bohemia and Muscovy — barren 
and fruitless, but containing the highest and 
reddest cedars in the world, farre bettering 
those of the Azores, of Lybanus, or of the 
60 



RALEIGH'S EXPEDITION TO ROANOKE 

Indies; also pines, cypress, sassaphras, the 
tree that beareth the rind of black sinamon 
of the kind which Master Winter brought 
from the str eights of Magellan, and many 
others of excellent smell and qualitie." 

The woods were wonderful, but no min- 
erals of importance were discovered, either 
by these first voyagers or by those who came 
after them. Gold was the lure, without 
doubt, that led to the fitting out of these 
expeditions and enticed the prospective 
colonists to embark on such risky voyages; 
but never once did the English discover such 
mines of the precious metals as the Spaniards 
opened to view in Mexico, Santo Domingo, 
and Peru. Gold, or the persistent search for 
it, and the cruelties committed to gain it, 
eventually wrought the ruin of Spain and its 
American colonies, while the English, stur- 
dier and hardier than the Latins, from a less 
fruitful soil extracted wealth of a different 
sort, and bequeathed to their descendants a 
permanent inheritance. 

The Spaniards ran a more rapid course 
than their rivals, the English, but it was the 
sooner ended. Between the date of the 
Cabotian discovery of Newfoundland, and 
that of Roanoke by the ships sent out by 
6i 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

Raleigh, Spain's ruthless conquerors had 
nearly exterminated the aboriginal inhabi- 
tants of the West Indies; had subjugated 
Mexico and Peru, thereby acquiring mines 
that yielded them millions and millions in 
treasure, and founded many cities, like Santo 
Domingo, Santiago de Cuba, Havana, St. 
Augustine, San Juan de Puerto Rico, Lima, 
and Panama. Truly, the Britons had lagged 
in the race, for they had not then a single 
settlement in the New World; they could 
not boast a fishing village even; and this 
notwithstanding Bartholomew Columbus had 
offered his brother's services to Henry VH. 
of England years before they were accepted 
by Ferdinand of Spain! 

Had there been a Walter Raleigh living in 
the reign of ''Henry the Penurious," instead 
of in the reign of Elizabeth the frivolous, 
England might have gained a century, which 
she lost through the ineptitude of her igno- 
rant sovereigns and their subjects. She did 
not follow up the advantage gained for her 
by the Cabot ian discovery, and so it re- 
mained for Raleigh to bring to light these 
things which had been hidden during count- 
less centuries. 

Not the least interesting of these were 
62 



RALEIGH'S EXPEDITION TO ROANOKE 

the red men of Roanoke, the manner of 
whose discovery was as follows : 

"We remained by the side of this island 
two whole dayes before we saw any people of 
this countrey. The third daye we espied one 
small boate rowing towardes us, having in 
it three persons. This boate came to the 
island side, four harquebuze-shot from our 
shippes, and there two of the people remain- 
ing, the third came along the shore towards 
us, and, we being then all within boord [on 
board ship] he walked up and down upon 
the point of land next unto us. Then the 
master and the pilot of the Admirall [the 
flag-ship] Simon Ferdinando, and the Cap- 
taine Amadas, and myselfe [Captain Bar- 
low] and others, rowed to the land, whose 
comming this fellow attended, never making 
any shewe of feare or doubt. And after he 
had spoken of many things (not understood 
by us) we brought him with his own good 
liking aboord the shippes and gave him a 
shirt, a hat, & some other things, and made 
him taste our wine and our meat, which he 
liked very wel. And after having viewed 
both our barks, he departed, and went to his 
own boat again, which he had left in a little 
cove or creek adjoyning. As soone as hee 
was two bow-shot into the water he fell to 
fishing, and in lesse than halfe an hour hee 
63 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

had laden his boate as deepe as it could 
swimme, with which hee came again to the 
point of the lande, and there he divided the 
fish into two parts, pointing one part to the 
ship, and the other to the pinnesse, which, 
after he had, as much as he might, requited 
our benefits received, departed out of sight. 
"The next day there came to us divers 
boates, and in one of them the King's broth- 
er, accompanied with fortie or fiftie men, 
very handsome and goodly people, and in 
their behaviour as mannerly and civill as 
any of Europe. His name was Granganimeo, 
and the King is called Wingina, the countrey 
Wingandacoa, and now, by her Majestic, Vir- 
ginia. The manner of his coming was in 
this sort: hee left his boates altogether, as 
the first man did, a little from the shippes by 
the shore, and came along to the place over 
against them, followed with fortie men. 
When he came to the place, his servants 
spread a long matte upon the ground, on 
which he sate down, and at the other end 
of the matte foure others of his company 
did the like, while the rest of his men stood 
round about him, somewhat afarre off. 
When wee came to the shore to him with 
our weapons, hee never mooved from his 
place, nor any of the other foure, nor never 
mistrusted any harme to be offered from us; 
but sitting still, he beckoned us to come, 
64 



RALEIGH'S EXPEDITION TO ROANOKE 

and sit by him, which we performed; and 
being set, hee made all signes of joy and 
welcome, striking on his head and on his 
breast, and afterwardes on ours, to shew wee 
were al one, smiling and making shewe the 
best he could al love and familiaritie. After 
hee had made a long speech unto us, we pre- 
sented him with divers things, which he re- 
ceived very joyfully and thankefully. None 
of the company durst speak one word al the 
time; only the foure, which were at the 
other ende spake one in the others' eare 
very softly.'* 

Wingina, the king, was confined to his 
wigwam, six days' journey distant, by 
wounds he had received in battle; but his 
brother was deputed by him to traffic with 
the strangers, and did so with avidity. 

"When we showed him all our packet of 
merchandise," wrote Barlow, "of all things 
that he saw, a bright tinne dish most pleased 
him, which hee presently tooke up and clapt 
it before his breast, and after making a hole 
in the brimme thereof, hung it about his 
neck, making signes that it would defende 
him against his enemies' arrowes; for these 
people maintain a deadly warre with the 
people and king adjoyning. We exchanged 
65 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

our tinne dish for twentie skinnes, woorth 
twentie crowns and twentie nobles, and a 
copper kettle for fiftie skinnes woorth fiftie 
crowns. They offered us good exchange for 
our hatchets and axes, and for knives and 
swordes would have given anything, but we 
would not part with any. 

** After two or three dayes the king's 
brother came aboord our shippes and dranke 
wine and eat of our meat and of our bread, 
and liked exceedingly thereof. And after 
a few more dayes he brought his wife with 
him to the shippes, also his daughter and 
two or three of his children. His wife was 
very well favored, of meane [medium] stature, 
and very bashfull. She had on her backe 
a long cloake of leather, with the furre side 
next to her body, and before her a piece of 
the same. About her forehead she had a 
bande of white corall, and so had her husband, 
many times. In her eares she had bracelets 
of pearles hangeing down to her middle, 
whereof wee delivered to your Worshippe 
[Raleigh] a little bracelet, and those were 
of the bignes of good pease. 

''The rest of her women of the better sort 
had pendants of copper hanging in their 
eares, and some of the king's brother's chil- 
dren and other noble men have five or six 
in either eares. He himself e had upon his 
head a broad plate of golde or copper (for 
66 



RALEIGH'S EXPEDITION TO ROANOKE 

being unpolished wee knew not what sort of 
mettal it should be), neither would he suffer 
us to take it off his head ; but feeling it, wee 
could bend it very easily. His apparell was 
as his wives, onely the women weare their 
haire long on both sides, and the men but 
on one. They are of a colour yellowish, and 
their haire black, for the most parte; and yet 
wee saw children that had very fine auburne 
and chesnut-coloured haire. . . . The king's 
brother had a great liking of our armour, a 
sworde and divers other things which we 
had, and offered to lay a great box of pearles 
in gage for them; but wee refused it for this 
time, or until we had understoode in what 
places of the countrey the pearls grew; which 
now your Worshippe doth very well under- 
stand." 

While exploring the interior of the island 
the Englishmen were entertained by the 
Indians "with all love and kindnesse, and 
with much bountie, after their manner, as 
they could possibly devise." Ninety-two 
years previously Christopher Columbus had 
landed on the shores of Guanahani, in the 
Bahamas, and there met the exact prototypes 
of these amiable people, and his description 
of those, the first Indians ever encountered 
by white men, is almost exactly duplicated 
6 67 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

by that of Captain Barlow. Columbus wrote 
in his journal, which he kept for the in- 
spection of Ferdinand and Isabella: "I 
swear to your majesties, there are no better 
people on earth ; for they are gentle, without 
knowing what evil is, neither killing nor 
stealing." And Captain Barlow says: "We 
found the people most gentle, loving, and 
faithfull, voide of all guile and treason, and 
such as live after the manner of the golden 
ager 

The fate of the Indians of the West Indies 
discovered by Columbus was swift exter- 
mination, initiated by himself; but the 
English mainly, in their dealings with 
these aboriginal peoples, were merciful and 
humane. Raleigh especially — as we shall 
later see, when following him to South 
America — was just and generous toward 
them, treating the men with consideration 
and the women with excessive gallantry. 
And yet, to the cruel caprices of a single in- 
dividual of a subsequent company sent out 
by Raleigh was chiefly due the hostile atti- 
tude of the Indians that led to the complete 
frustration of his colonization schemes. 

While the researches of Captains Amadas 
and Barlow were more thorough than those 
68 



RALEIGH'S EXPEDITION TO ROANOKE 

conducted by Gilbert and the Cabots on the 
coast of Newfoundland, yet their explora- 
tions were not extensive. "After the Ind- 
ians had been divers times aboord our 
shippes," says Captain Barlow, "my selfe, 
with seven more, went twentie mile into the 
river that runneth toward the citie of Ski- 
coak, which river they call Occam, and the 
evening following wee came to an island 
which they [the Indians] call Roanoak. At 
the north end thereof was a village of nine 
houses, built of cedar and fortified round 
about with palisados, to keep out their 
enemies, and the entrance into it made like 
a turnpike very artificially. When wee came 
toward it the wife of Granganimeo came run- 
ning out to meete us, very cheerfully and 
friendly, her husband not then being in the 
village. Some of her people she commanded 
to drawe our boate on shore, others she ap- 
pointed to carry us on their backs to the dry 
ground, and others to bring our oares into 
the house, for feare of stealing. When wee 
were come into the house she caused us to 
sit downe by a great fire, and after tooke our 
cloathes, washed them, and dryed them 
againe, while some of her women washed 
our stockinges and our feete in warm water. 
69 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

And she her selfe tooke great paines to see 
all these things ordered in the best manner 
shee could, making great haste to dresse 
some meat for us to eate." 

The continued hospitality of the savages, 
and their unremitting attentions, bred in 
the Englishmen, they said, a desire to linger 
on the coast; but as they had come to spy 
out the land rather than to colonize, the 
captains resolved to leave the country be- 
fore the end of summer. They set sail, ac- 
cordingly, and taking with them two "lustie 
savages " named Manteo and Wanchese, 
made the return voyage more expeditiously 
than the outward one, arriving in England 
about the middle of September. 



VI 

THE PIONEER IN VIRGINIA 

1585 

So sweet the air, so moderate the clime, 
None sickly lives, or dies before his time. 
Heav'n sure has kept this spot of earth uncurst 
To show how all things were created first." 



SO glowing were the accounts brought 
home by Amadas and Barlow, and so 
great was the favor shown them by the 
Queen, who allowed the new country to be 
named, in honor of her, ''virgin state," that 
Raleigh had no difficulty in securing colo- 
nists for Virginia. A fleet of seven sail was 
ready early in the spring of 1585, and, "with 
one hundred householders, and many things 
necessary to begin a new State, departed 
from Plymouth in April." England, hither- 
to so dilatory in colonization, was now 
aroused, and people flocked to Plymouth 
desirous of sharing in the rewards of an 
enterprise which promised so much, and at- 
71 



Sir WALTER RALEIGH 

tracted by Raleigh's offer of "five hundred 
acres to a man, only for the adventure of 
his person." 

Among those who embarked were Thomas 
Cavendish, who followed after Sir Francis 
Drake, at a later date, through the Straits 
of Magellan to the Pacific, ** and became the 
second Englishman to circumnavigate the 
globe." The most notable person, perhaps, 
who sailed on this expedition was Thomas 
Heriot, the celebrated mathematician and 
philosopher, who wrote that "able captains 
were not wanting." 

The expedition was commanded by Sir 
Richard Grenville, Raleigh's kinsman, who 
afterward met a glorious death at sea, fight- 
ing to his last breath for his country's honor. 
The voyage outward was prosperous, and the 
fleet, having taken the circuitous route by 
way of the West Indies, cruised the chain 
from Dominica to Porto Rico, where some 
Spanish captures were made, and safely ar- 
rived at the island of Wokoken, off what is 
now the coast of North Carolina, in the 
month of June. Manteo and Wanchese, 
the two Indians who had been taken to 
England by Amadas and Barlow, were sent 
to Roanoke with messages for the chiefs, 
72 




THOMAS CAVENDISH 
The second Englishman to circumnavigate the globe 



THE PIONEER IN VIRGINIA 

and returned with the friendly Granganimeo, 
who was received in state on board the com- 
mander's ship, the Tiger. The Indians were 
found to be still faithful to their former 
friends, and there seems to have been no 
manifestation of hostility whatever. Every- 
thing was propitious for the founding of a 
colony, and after several short explorations 
had been made, in order to determine the 
best place for a settlement, one hundred and 
eight men were set ashore for the purpose. 
They were under the orders of Captain Ralph 
Lane, who had been designated as governor 
of the projected colony, with Captain Philip 
Amadas as lieutenant-governor. 

Sir Richard Grenville remained, with his 
ships, until the last of August, when he de- 
parted for England; but, short as had been 
his stay, it was sufficient for sowing seeds of 
hate and distrust in the bosoms of the na- 
tives. He made a single short excursion 
into the country, and having missed a silver 
cup at one of his encampments, which had 
probably been taken by an Indian, in revenge 
he burned a native village. This was the 
first untoward act on either side, but the evil 
results were quickly felt. Those "most 
loving, gentle, and faithful people, void of 
73 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

all guile and treason," as the former visitors 
found them, were changed into sullen, sus- 
picious, and finally openly hostile savages, 
who threw every obstacle they could in the 
way of the colonists. The material for a 
successful colony was lacking in the first 
place, and with the open hostility of the 
Indians it was impossible to plant it on a 
firm foundation. Though buildings were 
erected, fields and gardens sown, and an 
earnest attempt made to provide against the 
coming winter, all was to no purpose. 

An account has been left us by Governor 
Lane himself of the transactions at Roanoke 
after the departure of Grenville, which is a 
pathetic narrative of sufferings sturdily en- 
dured and obstacles continually removed, 
only to be repeatedly encountered. 

The hope of finding pearls and gold, and 
making the discovery of that persistently 
evasive northwest passage (which had beck- 
oned on the Cabot s, Humphrey Gilbert, Fro- 
bisher, and Davis), became so strong that 
Lane finally decided to attempt a journey into 
the country of that king " whose province lay 
upon the sea." With a small force of men 
poorly equipped and victualled, he went by 
boat up the river Chawanook, an estimated 
74 



THE PIONEER IN VIRGINIA 

distance of one hundred and sixty miles; 
but the total failure of their provisions and 
the increasing hostility of the savages com- 
pelled them to return. 

Their supply of Indian corn was exhausted, 
and they were reduced to feeding upon the 
flesh of two English mastiffs, of which they 
made a pottage with sassafras leaves, by the 
time Roanoke was reached. Starving as 
they were, the gallant explorers were com- 
pelled to face the open hostility of the chief- 
tain Wingina, and in their weakness pit 
their forces against his. He had assembled 
a force of eighteen hundred men, under pre- 
tence of honoring the obsequies of his father, 
the old chief Ensenore, but with the real ob- 
ject, the English feared, of destroying them 
entirely. The conflict was of short duration, 
for the Indians could not withstand the on- 
slaughts of men armed as the English were, 
and abandoned not only the field but the isl- 
and. Chief Wingina was killed with others, 
and thus the colonists were rid of neighbors 
who had become a menace to their existence ; 
but at the same time they lost the support 
of agriculturists, whose crops of Indian corn 
would be their only reliance in event of 
famine. 

75 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

Grenville, on his departure, had promised 
to return by Easter with relief ships filled 
with supplies; but the time arrived without 
him, and the starving colonists were already 
in despair when they were surprised by the 
spectacle of a fleet of stately ships sailing 
into the harbor. They comprised the squad- 
ron of Sir Francis Drake, who was returning 
to England from the Spanish Main, the West 
Indies, and Florida, where he had sacked 
such noble cities as Cartagena, Santo Do- 
mingo, and St. Augustine. He was well 
supplied with provisions and ammunition, 
which he furnished the colonists most lib- 
erally, as well as with a bark and pinnace for 
their use along shore. 

Having supplied their needs, the gallant 
Sir Francis was about resuming his interrupt- 
ed voyage, when a storm broke upon the 
coast and destroyed the vessels he had left 
behind, thus reducing the colonists again to 
dependence upon their small boats. They 
then demanded of Governor Lane that he 
implore the Admiral to take them back with 
him to England, and were so persistent and 
despairing that Drake finally granted the 
request. He gave them all passage in his 
fleet, and after the storm was over they 
76 



THE PIONEER IN VIRGINIA 

sailed away, leaving Roanoke once more 
without a white inhabitant. As the Ind- 
ians, too, had departed, it was then quite 
desolate, and this was the final outcome of 
Raleigh's first attempt to plant a colony on 
the coast of America. 

Lane and his companions sailed on June 
19, 1586, and arrived in England on July 
27th. They were impoverished, they were 
despondent, and they had terrible tales to 
tell all would-be colonists in the American 
wilds. But, though circumstances had over- 
borne them, proof was soon forthcoming that 
they had succumbed too soon. Raleigh had 
not forgotten them, neither had Grenville 
proved recreant to his trust, for scarcely had 
they cleared the coast when a relief ship of 
a hundred tons' capacity sailed into Roanoke 
harbor, heavily freighted with supplies. It 
had been despatched ahead of Grenville's 
fleet, in anticipation of the wants of the 
colonists, who, if they had remained, would 
have revelled in abundance. Neither colo- 
nist nor native greeted the gallant Admiral, 
however, and after a prolonged search 
Grenville sailed away to the Azores, though 
he left behind on Roanoke fifteen sturdy 
volunteers, as a nucleus for a future settle- 
77 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

ment. He was not aware, perhaps, of the 
encounter between the colonists and the Ind- 
ians, nor that the latter were hostile rather 
than friendly; so these hapless fifteen were 
left there, with ample supplies for two years, 
to maintain themselves as best they might. 
The Indians were not long in finding them 
out, and when, the next year, another ex- 
pedition landed at Roanoke, no trace of 
them could be discovered, for all had per- 
ished. 

Though four expeditions in which Raleigh 
was interested — including the two voyages 
of Sir Humphrey Gilbert — had come to naught, 
he was not discouraged. The learned Heriot's 
account of the country and its resources 
confirmed him in the belief that it was well 
worth colonizing, that its future was to be 
great, and, moreover, that it was incumbent 
upon Englishmen to plant and develop that 
vast region lying between Newfoundland and 
the Floridas. The Spaniards, proceeding as 
it were along isothermal lines, had found 
their American habitat in the warm regions 
such as the West Indies and the tropical 
portions of Mexico, Central, and South 
America. They had seemingly abandoned 
the colder countries to the more hardy 
78 



THE PIONEER IN VIRGINIA 

Britons; yet how tardily had the latter in- 
vaded the region left so invitingly open for 
exploration and settlement! 

Whatever was done, however, Sir Walter 
Raleigh was the life and soul of it. Under 
the same charter he had obtained of the 
Queen for exploration and colonizing, he 
associated with himself the celebrated navi- 
gator Captain John Davis, and others, under 
the name of "The College of the Fellowship 
for the Discovery of the Northwest Passage." 
Davis sailed in 1585, the same year that 
Grenville and Lane went to Roanoke, and 
followed up this expedition with two other 
voyages, in the last of which he discovered 
the strait which bears his name and pene- 
trated as far as the seventy-third degree of 
north latitude. On the first voyage, in 
latitude 60° 40'' north, he had discovered a 
great promontory, ''the cliffs of which were 
as orient as gold," which in honor of his 
patron he had named "Mount Raleigh." 

Though not an expeditioner himself, Ra- 
leigh at that time was the active promoter 
of every expedition that sailed, whether to 
the arctic, temperate, or the torrid zone. 
Besides promoting and contributing liberal- 
ly to these enterprises, he also maintained 
79 



SIR WALTER; RALEIGH 

cruisers constantly at sea for privateering 
against the Spaniards. Notwithstanding all 
his occupations, however, he never lost sight 
of any one of them, but kept, as it were, one 
eye upon the seas of the icy north and the 
other upon the tropic waters of the south. 
His active mind could grasp a multitude of 
objects at once, and while amid the perplex- 
ing cares of court, where he was also busily 
engaged in managing the affairs of an im- 
perious mistress, he yet maintained a firm 
grasp on his vast enterprises beyond the 
seas. 

Raleigh's agents, Lane and Heriot, were 
both capable men and enterprising, but the 
former lacked energy and a capacity for 
great affairs, Heriot wrote a valuable topo- 
graphical description of the region visited 
and its natural history, which is preserved 
in the Hakluyt Collection, and drawings of 
all interesting objects were made by an 
artist sent out specially for the purpose, 
which were printed at Frankfort, by De Bry, 
in 1590. 

Supported by the authentic information 

furnished by author and artist. Sir Walter 

projected another expedition, which was 

finally assembled and sailed in the spring of 

80 



THE PIONEER IN VIRGINIA 

1587. It was commanded by Captain John 
White, associated with whom as governor 
of the colony were twelve business men as 
counsellors, who were authorized to build, 
on the river Chesapeake, a city to be called 
Raleigh. Sailing over the customary route 
via the West Indian islands, they arrived at 
Hatteras on July 22, 1587, after narrowly 
escaping shipwreck on Cape Fear. As soon 
as harbor was made, twenty men, under 
guidance of a friendly Indian, were sent to 
Roanoke in search of the fifteen colonists 
left there by Grenville the year before. 
They found the huts they had built still 
standing, but overgrown with weeds and 
bushes, and no trace of human beings. The 
bones of one who had died were found in a 
shallow grave, and from some natives who 
were discovered prowling about it was 
learned that all had been massacred by the 
Indians in revenge for the killing of Wingina. 
Considering it his duty, in turn, to obtain 
satisfaction for this outrage. Governor White 
sent a party of twenty-five men to the main- 
land, who, coming suddenly upon a band of 
natives encamped among the reeds by a riv- 
erside, opened fire upon them, killing and 
wounding several. The survivors ran for 
81 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

the shelter of a near-by wood, crying out 
that they were not enemies but friends, 
when it was discovered that they had come 
from Croatan to gather their harvests of com. 
Thus the vengeful deed miscarried, and yet 
was the means of adding to the rancor felt 
in Indian breasts toward the English in- 
truders. 

This tragedy was but the prelude to an- 
other and greater, which involved the fate 
of the entire colony, causing its destruction. 
The gallant Governor, who, with his three 
ships and one hundred and fifty colonists, 
had sailed so joyously through the fragrant 
archipelago of the Antilles, stopping at every 
attractive isle, tasting of every tropic fruit, 
and cooking the native vegetables in the hot 
waters of volcanic springs, had but led his 
followers through a flowery paradise into the 
vajiey of death. 
V'^^hortly after the arrival at Roanoke, in 
the month of August, was bom Virginia 
Dare, the first child of English birth and 
parentage in the New World, it is believed. 
The same week witnessed the baptism of 
Maneto, the faithful Indian, who was thus 
the first of his race to be received into the 
English Church in that new colony. These 
82 



THE PIONEER IN VIRGINIA 

two events give to the lost colony of Roanoke 
a most pathetic interest, and the infant 
Virginia Dare, named after England's ''vir- 
gin queen," bom in the wilderness, reared 
amid savages, perchance, but whose fate 
was never known, has often been the theme 
of song, of art, and of romance. 
-The settlers comprising this third expedi- 
tion sent out by Raleigh sent their Governor 
back to England for supplies, and he sailed 
away never to see them more. Sir Walter 
equipped and despatched five other ex- 
peditions between the years 1587 and 1602, 
but there was a fatal hiatus during the pro- 
tracted struggle with Spain for supremacy 
on the seas, which proved destructive to that 
hapless colony left on Roanoke. Not even 
the Queen's favorite could gain the royal 
sanction for ships to sail to its relief while 
the dreaded Armada was threatening English 
coasts, and after it was dispersed, destroyed, 
a long time elapsed before shipping could be 
obtained for the transport of supplies to 
Virginia. When, finally, succor arrived, it 
was too late, for every soul of that second 
colony had vanished as though the earth had 
opened and swallowed them up, or, rather, evil 
genii had borne them off to the wilderness! 
7 83 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

After many discouragements White suc- 
ceeded in getting possession of three ships, 
with which he sailed for Virginia, arriving 
there August 15, 1590. He landed first at 
Hatteras, whence he observed smoke arising 
from Roanoke, it is said, and hastened 
thither with joyful anticipations. He fully 
expected to find the colonists there, though 
nearly three years had passed since he left 
them, but, on landing, no human being was 
seen, nor after a long and persistent search. 
Fallen trees and grass were burning, indicat- 
ing recent human presence, but neither white 
person nor Indian was discovered. 

On a door-post of one of the dwellings the 
word ** Croatan " was inscribed, from which it 
was inferred that the colonists had gone to 
that island, and sail was made for it at once. 
But a violent storm arose, with head winds, 
and the search was cravenly abandoned, the 
would-be rescuers returning to England with- 
out tidings of the unfortunate colonists. A 
second time was Roanoke rendered desolate, 
and mystery again involved the fate of 
human beings who had been left there to 
make the wilderness fruitful and blossoming, 
but who found their graves therein. 



VII 

RALEIGH THE COLONIZER 
1585-1602 

SIR WALTER had not failed in his 
obligations to the lost colony; for, dur- 
ing the period in which England's naval 
forces were engaged in driving away the 
Spaniards and sweeping them from the seas, 
he was constantly recurring to that object 
nearest his heart — the rescue of those settlers 
whom he had induced to leave their native 
land for the wilds of America. But in vain, 
as we have seen, were all his efforts, until it 
was too late to save them. They became 
dispersed, mingled with the savages, and 
finally were extinguished as a distinctive 
people. Their memory alone remains; their 
wanderings, their ultimate fate, and their 
places of sepulture are unknown. 

The site of the original settlement has been 
marked by an enduring memorial, a monu- 
ment of Virginia and North Carolina granite, 
85 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

erected in 1896 by the "Roanoke Colony 
Memorial Association," which was organized 
for the purpose of rescuing it from oblivion. 
The outlines of historic Fort Raleigh have 
been traced and marked by granite posts. 
Upon the monument is the following inscrip- 
tion, which gives the history of the attempt 
at colonization in epitome : 

"On this site, in July -August, 1585 (O. S.), 
colonists sent out from England by Sir Walter 
Raleigh, built a fort, called by them the 

'NEW FORT IN VIRGINIA.' 

"These colonists were the first settlers of the 
English race in America. They returned to Eng- 
land in July, 1586, with Sir Francis Drake. 

"Near this place was born, on the i8th of 
August, 1587, 

VIRGINIA DARE, 

the first child of English parents born in America, 
daughter of Ananias and Eleanor White, his wife, 
members of another band of colonists sent out by 
Sir Walter Raleigh in 1587. 

"On Sunday, August 20, 1587, Virginia Dare 
was baptized. Manteo, the friendly chief of the 
Hatteras Indians, had been baptized on the Sun- 
day preceding. These baptisms are the first 
known celebrations of the Christian sacrament in 
the territory of the thirteen original States." 
86 




MAP OF ROANOKE AND VICINITY 
Brought away by the Raleigh colonists 



RALEIGH THE COLONIZER 

The date, " 1896," is cut on one side of the 
sub-base, and "1587" on the reverse, and 
in this manner the memory of those colonists 
has been perpetuated. The old fort is in 
the heart of what is at present a tract of 
woodland, and situated directly on Roanoke 
Sound. Surrounding it, and including the 
historic site of the settlement, is a larger 
tract owned by the association, comprising 
two hundred and forty acres of rolling land. 

"The use of tobacco, " writes the president 
of the association, " was first introduced into 
Great Britain by Sir Walter, after the re- 
turn of the first of his colonists from Roan- 
oke Island. To him and to his colonists 
the Anglo-American users of tobacco are 
indebted for the privilege of indulging in 
their favorite 'weed,' and a great part of 
the world at large for a vegetable product 
valuable as an article of commerce. In con- 
sideration, therefore, of what they owe to 
Sir Walter, it was asked that all who used 
and dealt in tobacco contribute a small sum 
— the value at least of two or three cigars — 
according to their means, to be devoted to 
the erection of memorials, at the place in the 
United States where tobacco was first dis- 
covered, to Sir Walter Raleigh, who made 
87 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

known its use, and to his colonists who 
perished here." 

It was certainly fit and proper that those 
who had derived enjoyment from the use 
of tobacco should erect a monument to the 
individual who, though he did not discover 
it, greatly promoted the habit which has 
since become universally diffused through- 
out the world. This leads to the remark 
that, while tobacco may have been taken 
home to England by Lane and Heriot when 
they were rescued by Sir Francis Drake, the 
plant had then long been known to Europe, 
having been introduced there as earl}^ as the 
beginning of the sixteenth century. Chris- 
topher Columbus found it in use among the 
natives of the West Indies in 1492, and it 
was described by a monk, in a letter WTitten 
to Peter Martyr from the island of Santo 
Domingo, in the year 1496. 

It was at first only an object of curiosity 
to the Spaniards, who were slow in becoming 
acquainted with the beneficent qualities as- 
cribed to it by the natives. The Indians of 
Haiti and Santo Domingo smoked the dried 
leaf in rolls, and also in a small pipe made of 
cane or reed, with a branched stem shaped 
like the letter Y, the ends of which they in- 
88 



RALEIGH THE COLONIZER 

serted in their nostrils. In their language 
the pipe was known as tabac, from which 
word has been evolved ''tobacco," the name 
now applied to the plant itself. Some there 
are who have traced this word to " Tobago," 
the present as well as aboriginal name of an 
island off the northeast coast of South 
America, not far from Trinidad. Raleigh is 
said to have obtained tobacco from that 
island in 1593 or 1595, which is much more 
likely than that he received it from Vir- 
ginia in 1586; and, again, the plants said to 
have been taken to England by Lane may 
have been obtained by Drake himself in the 
West Indies, from which islands he was re- 
turning when he put in at Roanoke. 

Tobacco, most assuredly, was found in 
Mexico by the Spaniards when that country 
was conquered, for it was used at Monte- 
zuma's court, and, moreover, it may have 
been known to Cortes when he lived in 
Santo Domingo, from which island it was 
introduced to Spain about 1525, where it 
was at first grown as an ornamental plant. 
Found in Portugal, where it was well known 
for its medicinal properties, by Jean Nicot, 
French ambassador at Lisbon, some seeds 
were sent by him to Catherine de Medici, 
89 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

and in his honor the plant was given the 
generic name of Nicotiana. But neither 
Nicot nor Raleigh discovered it, nor did the 
latter first introduce it into England, for 
Sir John Hawkins won the doubtful honor 
of having done this in 1565. 

Raleigh encouraged its use, as he encour- 
aged the consumption of the potato, which, 
also, he has the credit of having introduced 
into England, though this honor belongs 
either to Hawkins or Drake, whose long 
cruises along the coasts of South America 
brought to notice many things previously- 
unknown to Englishmen. But Raleigh was 
more inclined to experimentation than either 
Drake or Hawkins, and while one or both of 
them may have taken the "weed" or the 
tuber from South America to England, 
neither undertook its cultivation. This Ra- 
leigh did, establishing a plantation of exotics 
at Youghal, on his Irish estate, in a garden 
which is still pointed out as that in which 
he successfully raised both tobacco and 
potatoes. 

This may seem a trivial subject, per se; 

but it is not so, taken in connection with the 

extension of human knowledge which the 

introduction of a new plant implies, and. the 

90 



RALEIGH THE COLONIZER 

benefits wrought thereby. Sir Walter Ra- 
leigh possessed the inquiring mind which 
provoked him to smoke tobacco out of 
curiosity, and the philanthropic instinct 
which moved him to plant potatoes and 
tobacco from a desire to benefit his fellow- 
men. The man who plants gardens and 
conducts experiments, with a view to ex- 
tending the bounds of knowledge and in- 
creasing the products of the soil, cannot be 
classed with the frivolous or vain; yet it is 
this aspect of his nature, in connection with 
the introduction of tobacco, that is most 
often dwelt upon. 

We read that Raleigh became so addicted 
to the tobacco habit that he considered it 
impossible to do without it; that he spent 
large sums in pipes and accessories; that he 
smoked in the presence of the Queen, who, 
indeed, was said to enjoy a whiff of fragrant 
tobacco herself. One of the vapid stories 
prevalent at the time relates that Elizabeth 
laid a wager with her favorite that he could 
not tell her the weight of the smoke escaping 
from his silver pipe. Affirming that he 
could, the wily Raleigh weighed first the 
tobacco, and then the ashes remaining in 
the pipe, declaring that the difference, of 
91 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

course, was actually the weight of the 
smoke! The Queen acknowledged herself 
convinced ; but she slyly said, as she ordered 
the wager to be paid: "I have heard, 
Walter, of those who turned their gold into 
smoke, but never before have seen the man 
who could turn smoke into gold!" 

There is also another story to the effect 
that one day, as Sir Walter was smoking in 
his study, and engaged in reading at the 
same time, a servant who was unaware of 
his master's habit entered the room with a 
tankard of ale in his hand. Seeing smoke 
issuing from the great man's mouth, and 
thinking him on fire, he threw the ale in 
his face and then ran to alarm, the family, 
crying out that his master was burning up. 

So long as tobacco proved a remunerative 
source of revenue to the crown, Elizabeth 
countenanced its importation and use on an 
extensive scale ; but her crusty and eccentric 
successor, King James, was violently op- 
posed to it on any terms. In his celebrated 
work, the Counterblast to Tobacco, he declares 
it "loathesome to the eye, hateful to the 
sight, harmeful to the orgaine, dangerous to 
the lungs ; and in the blacke, stinking fumes 
thereof, nearest resembling the horrible 
92 



RALEIGH THE COLONIZER 

Stygian smoake of the pit that is bottom- 
less." 

It is certain that Sir Walter Raleigh 
gained nothing in the estimation of the King 
by his use of tobacco, and because he was 
addicted to it the cantankerous James de- 
nounced it the more ; but he only succeeded 
in curing him of the habit by cutting off his 
head! For he used it to the very last, and 
is said to have solaced himself with a smoke 
just previous to ascending the scaffold. 
Raleigh, then, was a user of tobacco for 
more than thirty years, during which time 
he saw its slaves increase in number from_ the 
few who were his first associates, in 1586, 
to many, many thousands in 161 8. 

It may be inferred, from what we have 
seen of Raleigh's "side enterprises," such 
as the experiments with potatoes and to- 
bacco, the introduction of tropical trees and 
vegetables, and the assiduous care bestowed 
upon them, that he expended much more 
than was shown by his direct contributions 
to the cause of exploration and colonization. 
Directly, indeed, he expended more than 
forty thousand pounds upon the Virginia en- 
terprises alone . Then , after having exhausted 
his own resources, without having received 
93 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

one penny in gains, he made an assignment 
of his patent to one Thomas Smith and other 
merchants, among whom was Governor 
White, in March, 1589. In addition to 
making them a free gift of his patent, he 
donated the sum of one hundred pounds 
" for the propagation of the Christian reHgion 
in Virginia"; but even then his interest in 
the colonization of that country did not 
cease. 

One of his biographers says: "His Vir- 
ginian enterprise had failed; but his per- 
severance in it had sown broadcast the seeds 
of eventual success. He had set an example, 
which lived, with a more than common 
vitality, in the minds of men. Persevering 
as he had been, his 'Plantation in America,' 
like miany other of his great undertakings, 
had been, in some degree, injured and im- 
peded by his self-seeking pursuits at court. 
The same 'calamity' that cut short the 
temptations which were preying upon the 
noblest part of his nature opened the way, 
as it proved, to the new plantations, which 
were destined to prosper. Nevertheless, 
Raleigh is the virtual founder of Virginia 
and of what has grown thereout. 

" He was a pioneer in a multitude of paths, 
94 



RALEIGH THE COLONIZER 

which have converged at length in the 
greatness of Britain. He had, in con- 
spicuous measure, the faiHngs which com- 
monly accompany his eminent qualities, 
and, as is the wont of pioneers, he fell on 
the field. In the history of Britain at large 
there are not many greater names than his, 
whatever be its real blots. In the history 
of British America there is none." 

Contemporaneously with his colonizing 
schemes in America, Sir Walter Raleigh be- 
came a colonizer, on an extensive scale, in 
Ireland. That country at that time was, 
as an old writer has described it, a land of 
desolation and sorrow. ''The curse of God 
was so great," he says, "and the land so 
barren, both of man and beast, that whoso- 
ever did travel from one end to the other of 
all Munster, even from Waterford to Smer- 
wick, about sixscore miles, he should not 
meet man, woman, or child, save in cities 
and towns, nor yet see any creature save 
foxes, wolves, or other ravening beasts." 

In the year 1586, by royal gift, Raleigh 
became possessed of more than twelve thou- 
sand acres in this afflicted country. This 
vast estate was a portion of the yet vaster 
holdings of the Earl of Desmond and his 
95 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

adherents, and lay chiefly in the counties of 
Cork, Waterford, and Tipperary. It was 
rich in natural resources, but almost entirely 
desolate, so the enterprising Raleigh under- 
took to supply this deficiency by introduc- 
ing English tenants from his native Devon- 
shire and other counties. There were other 
grantees, or "gentleman undertakers," as 
they were termed; but it was soon noted 
that the estates belonging to Sir Walter were 
better tilled than theirs, and all on account 
of his activity and skill, not only in selecting 
the best tenants, but in exploiting the latent 
resources of his domains. 

He was not then dependent upon imreliable 
officials, laboring under the disadvantages 
attendant upon colonizing in a new and 
savage coimtry, but exercised a direct over- 
sight himself. Within three years he had 
completed a rough survey of his properties, 
and in 1588, having been appointed Mayor 
of Youghal, he began the historic plantation 
to which reference has been made. In the 
manor-house at Youghal he planned the 
many improvements which he undertook to 
carry out, but what he called his "Irish 
seat" was the castle of Lismore, which he 
obtained at a nominal rental from the dean 
96 



RALEIGH THE COLONIZER 

and chapter of Cashel. His stay here was 
brief, however, as he was recalled to Eng- 
land, soon after establishing himself in the 
castle, to assist in repelling the Spaniards. 

Before he left Ireland he had established 
an industry which, though it proved a source 
of great trouble to him, was vastly bene- 
ficial to the country at large. This was the 
making of hogshead and pipe staves from 
the timber on his estates. The crude ma- 
terial was at hand in unlimited supply, for 
his properties were thickly wooded, so he 
set at work one hundred and fifty laborers, 
at full pay, and at his own charge, for the 
transforming of the tall trees of Ireland into 
staves for French and Spanish wine-casks. 
He then foimd, after a great quantity of 
staves had been accumulated, that their ex- 
port was forbidden by statute, and was 
compelled to appeal to the Queen for a re- 
peal of this ''restraint." 

Scant relief was afforded, evidently, for 
five years later is the following entry in the 
council-book: ''A petition hath been made 
unto us by Sir Walter Ralegh and his part- 
ners, undertakers in Munster, desiring that 
in respect of the quantity of timber by them 
already felled and prepared, and like to rot 
97 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

on the ground and be spoyled, and that by 
not venting of that commodity, many good 
and able workmen, to the number of between 
one and two hundred, ready to serve with 
weapons upon all occasions of service, must, 
of necessity, be discharged and drawn thence 
into England, to the general weakening of 
that province. It might be lawful for them 
to bring into England all such pipe-staves, 
hogsheads, barrel-boards, and timber as they 
may spare and shall think convenient to 
transport hither; offering to give security 
in the ports whereto the same shall be laden, 
to convey them into some certain place, here 
within this realm, and from thence to return 
certificate of their unlading, and not to con- 
vey the same into any other place foreign, 
but into England only. For these con- 
siderations, we have been moved to assent 
to their petition, with conditions, following." 
This permission for export, so grudgingly 
granted, was hampered by so many and hard 
conditions that the business could not be 
prosecuted profitably, and, in addition to 
this, Raleigh suffered from the dishonesty 
of his partners and superintendents. His 
troubles in Ireland were many and various, 
resulting from conflict with the Irish them- 
98 



RALEIGH THE COLONIZER 

selves, or opposition to his plans by the 
Queen's deputies. How he was hampered 
in his projects for the exploitation of the 
country's resources appears in a letter written 
after he had lost the royal favor, in July, 
1592. In this letter he complains to Sir 
Robert Cecil of the manner in which he 
was dealt with by the deputy of Ireland, Sir 
William Fitzgerald, ''who," he says, " invented 
a debt of four hundred pounds to the Queen 
for rent, and sent an order to the sheriff to 
take away all the cattle my tenants had and 
sell them, unless the money were paid the 
same day. All Munster hath scarce so much 
money in it; and the debt was indeed fifty 
marks, which was paid ; and it was the first 
and only rent that hath yet been paid by 
any undertaker." 

It seems incredible that such proceedings 
should be allowed against one who had done 
his best to bring Ireland out of the rut into 
which she had sunk, and against immigrants 
brought out from England itself; "but," he 
adds, '* the sheriff did as he was commanded, 
and took away five hundred milch kine from 
those poor people. Some had but two, and 
some three, to relieve their wives and chil- 
dren; and in a strange country newly set 
8 99 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

down to build and plant." That the royal 
policy was insensate and cruel is manifest 
on the face of it, but that it should bear as 
hard upon a loyal servant of the Queen as 
upon a rebellious vassal seems strange. 
Raleigh repeatedly warned the government 
that this policy would result in fresh insur- 
rections, but as the warning came from 
one who was then a prisoner in the Tower, 
it was not heeded. Oppressed both by the 
home government and Irish guerillas, the 
English settlers in Ireland had a grievous 
experience. The government took their 
properties and the rebels took their lives. 
Raleigh would have stood between the two 
classes, oppressors and oppressed, but he suf- 
fered the fate of such an intermediary and 
went down with the weaker party. 

It has been charged that Raleigh was con- 
sistently cruel to the Irish, showing them no 
favors and maltreating them without mercy ; 
but the evidence goes to show that he held 
no malice against any man because of his 
nationality. A rebel, however, he could not 
tolerate, but his extreme views as to the 
punishment of rebels were shared by all the 
supporters of the government at the time. 
A price was set upon the head of every rebel 

lOO 



RALEIGH THE COLONIZER 

in arms, and assassinations were encouraged 
rather than deprecated. Raleigh's views on 
the subject are set forth in a letter he wrote 
some time in 1598: 

"Sir, — It can be no disgrace if it were known 
that the killing of a rebel were practised; for you 
see that the lives of anointed princes are daily- 
sought, and we have always, in Ireland, given head- 
money for the killing of rebels, who are evermore 
proclaimed at a price! So was the Earl of Des- 
mond, and so have all rebels, been practised 
against. ... W. Ralegh." 

That the evil practice was countenanced, 
at least indirectly, by the Queen seems to 
receive confirmation in the exploit of one 
Captain Leigh, who, having killed a noted 
rebel named Feogh Mad Hugh, cut off his 
head and sent it as a present to Elizabeth. 
Whether this ghastly gift reached the Queen 
or not, its arrival at court must have been 
made known to her, for we find the cotmcil 
writing to the lord deputy in Ireland : "It 
would have pleased her Majesty much better 
that the same should have been kept there 
[in Ireland], and bestowed away with other 
like fragments of the heads and carcases of 
such rebels, than to have been sent over into 
this realm. . . . Nevertheless, because the mean- 

lOI 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

ing was good, the error was the less. The best 
and most easy amendment thereof is to send 
the head back again by the same messenger." 

No reproof received Captain Leigh, either 
from the Queen or her council. He was 
cautioned to cut off no more heads of rebels, 
but if, perchance, he should cut them off, 
to refrain from sending the gory trophies to 
the court. 

It was a most shocking, disgraceful busi- 
ness, that service of Raleigh in Ireland, in 
the first place, and his acquisition of the 
confiscated estates in the second place. No 
good ever came of it, and, despite the great 
schemes of improvement in which he in- 
dulged, the philanthropic visions that may 
have flitted through his brain (though as to 
this there is no evidence in proof), he was 
finally moved to sell all his Irish holdings 
except, as he wrote to a friend at the time, 
**an old castle and demesne, which are yet in 
the occupation of the old Duchess of Des- 
mond, for her jointure." 

We have traced Sir Walter's career as a 
colonizer, both in America and in Ireland, 
and have noted that he was not successful, 
either in the great country beyond the ocean 
or the green isle near to England's shores. 

I02 



RALEIGH THE COLONIZER 

He did not succeed as a colonizer, though his 
captains contributed something to the world's 
acquisitions as explorers; but it was not from 
lack of endeavor that he failed so much as 
from the worthlessness of his employes and 
the inertia of the English government. 

A speaking commentary on conditions 
prevailing at that time may be found in a 
letter written by a shrewd observer of events 
a few years after Raleigh's failure to colonize 
in Virginia. ''That action," he says, ''it is 
to be feared, will fall to the ground of itself 
by the extreme beastly idleness of our na- 
tion, which, notwithstanding any cost or 
diligence used to support them, will rather 
starve or die than be brought to labor." 



VIII 

REPELLING THE ARMADA 

1588 

SIR WALTER RALEIGH'S share in 
the great victory of the Enghsh fleet 
over the ** invincible Armada," sent by Spain 
to ravage England and shatter the fabric of 
Protestantism, was not so large as that of 
Howard and Drake; but he rendered im- 
portant service, nevertheless. He was one 
of the council of war called together by the 
Queen to draw up a scheme of defence against 
the on-coming enemy, and which consisted, 
besides himself, of Lord Grey, Sir John 
Norris, Sir Richard Grenville, Sir Thomas 
Leighton, Sir Richard Bingham, Sir Roger 
Williams, and the former Governor of Vir- 
ginia, Ralph Lane. He was hastily sum- 
moned from Ireland for the purpose of at- 
tending the deliberations of this council ; and 
perhaps there was no man more active than 
he in putting its recommendations into effect. 
104 



REPELLING THE ARMADA 

Plymouth was to be strengthened im- 
mediately by defensive works; Portland was 
to be fortified, also all possible landing- 
places which might be availed of by the 
enemy. It was then perceived that, not- 
withstanding the repeated warnings the 
English had received, their coast was in- 
secure, their fortifications weak, and their 
navy lacking in ships and equipment. Hav- 
ing had the Spaniards ever in his mind, as 
both present and prospective enemies of 
England, and having had many a brush with 
them in his privateers. Sir Walter possessed 
a very good knowledge of their strength and 
of their weaknesses. The first line of de- 
fence, he advised, should be composed of 
their war-ships, after the defeat of which— 
provided such a contingency were possible— 
they could fall back upon the forts and the 
soldiers. While holding to this belief, he 
yet lost no time in recruiting for an army of 
defence, and, with his headquarters at Port- 
land Castle, pushed forward his preparations 
on a mighty scale. He was indefatigable in 
raising troops of horse and companies of foot 
in Cornwall and Devon, besides strengthen- 
ing the coast defences wherever practicable. 
He indirectly contributed to swelling the 
105 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

list of ships in the Httle navy by selHng to 
the government the vessel he had built to 
take part in Sir Humphrey Gilbert's expedi- 
tion of 1583. Ten years before, the Ark 
Ralegh had returned to England, after setting 
out with Gilbert's fleet, under such circum- 
stances as to greatly discredit her com- 
mander, who was roundly denounced by the 
gallant Admiral. She had a destiny, how- 
ever, and that was to serve as flag-ship of the 
fleet so hastily assembled for the repulse of 
the Armada. Over the Ark Ralegh Lord 
Howard, of Effingham, hoisted his flag, as 
the lord high admiral of the fleet, and when 
it was suggested that the price paid Raleigh 
for the flag -ship was excessive, he wrote 
to the Queen's prime - minister : "Tell her 
Majesty from me, I pray you, that the money 
was well given for her. I think her the very 
ship in the world for all conditions ; and truly 
I think there can no great ship make me 
change and go out of her. We can see no 
sail, great or small, but, how far soever they 
be off, we can fetch and speak with them." 

This was high praise for the ship that 
Raleigh had constructed, and certainly he 
deserved well of the government which bene- 
fited by his skill and foresight. But the 
106 



REPELLING THE ARMADA 

truth is that he was basely requited, indeed, 
for, though it was agreed that five thousand 
pounds should be paid for her, Sir Walter re- 
ceived not a penny, as the sum was deducted 
from a debt which it was claimed he owed 
the crown on account of another expedition. 
Not alone the Ark Ralegh, but another of 
his ships, the Roebuck, served with great 
effect and took an active part in the battle; 
and it was one of his own scouts that first 
brought the news of the Armada's approach. 
We do not know that he was, with Drake and 
his comrades, engaged in that famous game 
of bowls on Plymouth Hoe when tidings 
came of the Armada's near approach, and the 
great "Dragon of the Seas" (as the Span- 
iards called him) declared he would not 
leave until the game was finished. The 
chances are that he was not at Plymouth 
when the Spaniards were reported advancing, 
but at his post in Portland Castle, watching 
developments that might indicate whether he 
should remain ashore or put to sea. It was 
not to the discredit of Raleigh that he did not 
join the fleet at the outset, for his duties de- 
tained him on shore, where he performed 
yeoman's service in every sense. Soldier 
that he was, he felt at home with his volun- 
107 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

teers, and enjoyed hammering the raw 
recruits into shape; but he was more sailor 
than soldier, after all, and he yearned 
mightily to be out in the Channel and close 
up with the enemy. 

At last he and his friends with him at 
Portland Castle could no longer endure in- 
action, could no longer stand still and wait 
while their comrades were engaged hand-to- 
hand with the Spaniards. When tidings 
came that the mighty squadron was well into 
the Channel, and its purpose, or lack of it, 
was manifest — that is, when it became clear 
that the coast he was to defend seemed safe 
from invasion — Raleigh made swift prep- 
arations for embarking on board a volun- 
teer squadron that was held in readiness. 
He and his company went aboard their ships, 
and were among the first of the contingents, 
says Hakluyt, the historian, which swelled 
the English fleet to about one hundred sail. 

If we should refer to the sailing of this 
"invincible Armada" — to its outfitting in 
the ports of Spain and Portugal, and the 
mighty multitude of workmen for months 
engaged in the preparation of the "greatest 
fleet that ever sailed " — we might only reiter- 
ate what has been repeated a thousand times 
io8 



REPELLING THE ARMADA 

before. But in order to follow the trend 
of events that came so swiftly crowding one 
upon another in those anxious weeks of 
July and August, 1588, we should at least 
briefly recapitulate the salient features of the 
Spanish King's Armada. It was composed 
of about one hundred and thirty vessels, 
large and small, sixty-five of seven hundred 
tons and over, manned by seven thousand 
sailors, and carrying nineteen thousand 
troops, with which to invade the country 
after a landing had been effected. They 
carried two thousand cannon, and six months' 
provisions for forty thousand men. 

There might have been more ships, with 
a larger complement of sailors and soldiers, 
had not Drake, in April of the year before, 
attacked those that were then assembled in 
the harbor of Cadiz, and sunk at least a 
hundred men-of-war and transports filled 
with supplies. During thirty-six hours, in 
the port of Cadiz, this most gallant and 
audacious of the "Sea-Kings of Devon" 
burned and ravaged and plundered, after 
which he carried destruction to the fishing 
fleets along the Spanish coasts upon which 
the enemy depended for much of their pro- 
visions. Having so daringly "singed the 
109 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

King of Spam's whiskers," as he gayly term- 
ed this wonderful sea-foray, Drake returned 
triumphantly to England, carrying with him 
the stirring tidings, and heartening his coun- 
trymen for the inevitable conflict before them. 

There was then a great bestirring of forces 
in England that had hitherto lain dormant 
and unsuspected — activity in shipyards, 
which became bustling centres of labor, 
scarcely second to those of Portugal and 
Spain ; a furbishing up of arms and accoutre- 
ments ; a culling of vessels from the merchant 
marine ; an assembling of war-ships, impress- 
ing of sailors, and drilling of soldiers. As 
one man, the country united to repel the 
enemy from its shores when they should 
be imminently threatened. Drake's attack 
had caused the sailing of the Armada to be 
postponed at least a year, during which 
the nation in whose name he committed 
his ravages, and whose honor he defended, 
accumulated supplies, raised an army, and 
made ample preparations for defence. 

It was on July 23d that Raleigh joined the 
fleet opposed to the Armada. A squadron 
of eighty sail only had at first been avail- 
able, and of these but thirty were ships of 
the line. But they were manned by more 
no 



REPELLING THE ARMADA 

and hardier sailors than the Spaniards had, 
were swifter, and more responsive to the 
helms than their bulky opponents, which 
were veritable sea-castles, impressive to be- 
hold but slow, clumsy, and unmanageable 

Misfortune had attended the Armada al- 
most from its inception. The expe^nced 
Admiral who was to command it had died at 
the time appointed for sailing, and his suc- 
cessor lacked skill as a seaman and force and 
promptitude as a commander. Drake s at- 
tack had destroyed many of the store-ships, 
upon which reliance had been placed for 
supplies; a gale in the Bay of Biscay drove 
the great sea-castles to shelter from the 
storm, and compelled a radical refitting of 
the fleet; but at last, still held to be in- 
vincible," the Armada bore down upon the 
little squadron opposing its advance. 

Then ensued the prolonged engagement 
which, aided by the wind and sea, and sup- 
plemented by the cowardice and inefficiency 
of the Spaniards themselves, ended m the 
destruction of the Armada. The light and 
easily handled ships of the Britons had the 
bulky galleons at their mercy almost from 
the first attack, for they advanced close up 
to their towering antagonists, delivered their 



III 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

broadsides, and then got safely away before 
the Spanish guns could be brought to bear 
upon them. Spanish markmanship, also, was 
as inferior to the English as it is to-day, and 
while many of the helpless galleons were 
shattered or sunk, their foes escaped al- 
most unscathed. In the week's fight that 
followed the first encounter the Spaniards 
became thoroughly demoralized, and after 
several of their ships had been sunk, boarded, 
or driven ashore they sought shelter in the 
port of Calais, whence Lord Howard's fire- 
ships drove them out in a panic, to eventual 
destruction by the combined forces of can- 
non, wind, and wave. 

One of the participants in this fight and 
flight alludes to the tantalizing attacks by 
the English in their nimble vessels, and the 
futile repulses of the clumsy galleons com- 
bined, as a "morris dance upon the waves"; 
but it was a dance of death to most of those 
within the Spanish ships, for scarce one-third 
the entire number of vessels composing the 
fleet ever returned to Spain. Sir Walter, 
who, after the second day's fight, was among 
the foremost in pursuit and the last to quit, 
afterward described the " invincible Armada, " 
and the conclusion of its disastrous career: 

112 



REPELLING THE ARMADA 

"This navy, consisting of a hundred and 
forty sail, was, by thirty of the Queen's 
ships of war and a few merchantmen, 
beaten and shuffled together, even from 
the Lizard Point, in Cornwall, to Portland, 
where they . shamefully left Don Pedro de 
Valdez, with his mighty ship ; from Portland 
to Calais, where they lost Hugo de Moncada, 
with the galleys of which he was captain; 
and from Calais, driven with squibs from 
their anchors, were chased out of the sight 
of England, round about Scotland and Ire- 
land, where great part of them were crushed 
against the rocks. Those others who landed, 
being very many in number, were broken, 
slain, and taken, and so sent from village 
to village, coupled in halters, to be shipped 
into England, whence her Majesty, of her 
princely and invincible disposition, disdain- 
ing to put them to death, and scorning 
either to retain or entertain them, they were 
all sent back again to their own country, to 
witness and recount the worthy achieve- 
ments of their 'Invincible Navy.' 

"On the night of Sunday, the 28th of 
July, 1588, the great Armada was huddled, 
all demoralized and perplexed, in Calais 
roads. Only a week before, the proudest 
fleet that ever rode the seas laughed in de- 
rision at the puny vessels that alone stood 
between it and victory over the heretic 

113 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

Queen and her pirate countrymen, who for 
years had plundered and insulted with im- 
punity the most powerful sovereign in 
Europe. Gilded prows and fluttering pen- 
nons, great towering hulls w^hich seemed to 
defy destruction, the fervid approbation of 
all Latin Christendom, and the assurance of 
Divine protection, combined to produce in 
the men of the Armada absolute confidence 
in an easy conquest. But six days of 
desultory fighting in the Channel had opened 
their eyes to facts hitherto undreamed of. 
Handy ships, that could sail several points 
closer the wind than their unwieldy gal- 
leons, could harass and distress them with- 
out coming to close quarters. At first they 
shouted that the English were afraid of them, 
but as the sense of their ow*n impotence grad- 
ually grew upon them their spirits sank. 
Brave they were ; 'but, ' said they, ' of what use 
is bravery against foes who will not fight with 
us hand to hand in the only way we wot of ?' 
"... But the Armada had represented the 
labor, the thought, and the sacrifice of years. 
Every nerve had been strained to render it 
irresistible. Spain and the Indies had been 
squeezed to the last doubloon; careful 
Sixtus V. had been cajoled into partnership 
in the enterprise, and the Church throughout 
Christendom had emptied its coffers to crush 
heresy for once and forever. All along the 
114 



REPELLING THE ARMADA 

coast of Ireland, from the Giant's Causeway 
to Dingle Bay, the wreckage of the splendid 
galleons was awash, and many of the best 
and bravest of Spain's hidalgos, dead and 
mutilated, scattered the frownmg shore; or, 
alive starved, naked, and plundered, were 
slowly done to death, with every circum- 
stance of inhumanity, by the Irish kerns or 
their EngUsh conquerors."^ 

There was talk in Spain, of course, of re- 
taliation, of still another armada mightier 
than that which had left its bones on t.ng- 
land's shores, but it finally came to naught. 
Indeed, had the Queen but allowed the fore- 
seeing Drake to have his untrammelled way, 
and had left him unhampered by her orders 
not to harm the property or subjects of his 
Catholic majesty, there might have been no 
Armada at all, for he had contemplated de- 
stroying the ships in Lisbon harbor as well 
as those in Cadiz. Had her penurious policy 
prevailed, in fact, and had not the ships she 
ordered to harbor been taken out by Lord 
Howard, in the face of her inhibition, there 
might have been a different story to tell. 

1 From The Year After the Armada, by M. A. S. Hume. 
London, 1896. 



IX 

THE FORTUNES OF A COURTIER 
I589-1592 

ALTHOUGH Sir Walter comported him- 
L self SO gallantly in the continuous action 
with the Armada as to win the smiles and 
thanks of his royal mistress, not many 
months elapsed, if we may believe the gos- 
sips of the court, before he was "chased 
away" by his younger rival for the Queen's 
affections — the handsome Earl of Essex. 
This is a matter of no moment, for neither 
Raleigh nor Essex held Elizabeth in regard, 
and only her vanity prevented the Queen 
from perceiving the real state of their feel- 
ings toward her. She was aged, ugly, ca- 
pricious, and yet jealous of the attentions 
her two favorites bestowed upon other 
women. Had she not been a sovereign and 
capable of granting royal favors, these gal- 
lants would never have hung so constantly 
116 



THE FORTUNES OF A COURTIER 

about her, like moths about a flame. And 
this simile is not inapt, since, like the pro- 
verbial ''moth," they received a scorching 
for too persistently hovering around the 
throne. Their wings were singed, and one 
of them lost his life as an indirect conse- 
quence of his folly. 

It is only when our hero comes within the 
pernicious influence of the court, with its in- 
trigues, its hollo wness, and mockery of all 
reason, that he displays the shallow waters 
of his nature. Abroad, away from empty- 
pated courtiers and painted beauties, he 
shows himself at his full stature. There was 
no dispute between him and his companion 
heroes of the Armada fight as to which should 
assume direction and take the lion's share 
of honors, as there was between him and 
Essex when the matter of their Queen's 
favor was involved. Many years after, 
when composing the chapters of his renowned 
History of the World, we find Raleigh going 
out of his way to compliment his old com- 
mander, the Lord High Admiral, for refusing 
to grapple with the Spanish ships and board 
them. "To clap ships together without 
consideration," he wrote, ''belongs rather 
to a madman than to a man of war. By 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

such ignorant bravery was Peter Strozzi 
lost at the Azores, when he fought against 
the Marquess of Santa Cruz. In like sort 
had Lord Charles Howard, Admiral of Eng- 
land, been lost in the year 1588, if he had 
not been better advised than a great many 
malignant fools were that found fault with 
his demeanor. The Spaniards had an army 
aboard them, and he had none. They had 
more ships than he had, and of higher build 
and charging; so that, had he entangled 
himself with those great and powerful vessels, 
he had greatly endangered this kingdom of 
England. For twenty men upon the defence 
are equal to a hundred that board and en- 
ter; whereas, then contrariwise, the Span- 
iards had an hundred for twenty of ours, to 
defend themselves withal. But our Admiral 
knew his advantage and held it; which had 
he not done, he had not been worthy to have 
held his head." 

While playing the fool at court, Sir Walter 
was acting the man abroad, for his privateers, 
under the general supervision of their owner, 
were sweeping the seas of Spanish galleons 
wherever they could be found. Availing 
himself of the comparative liberty which he 
possessed for a brief period after the Armada 
118 



THE FORTUNES OF A COURTIER 

encounter, he joined an expedition fitted out 
for the attempted restoration of the exiled 
Dom Antonio to the throne of Portugal. 
The fleet was commanded by Sir Francis 
Drake, but the forces which were carried 
along for a land invasion by Sir John Norris, 
and between the rivalship of the two the 
entire expedition failed of its mission. Dom 
Antonio was landed on his native soil of Portu- 
gal, and Sir John Norris marched upon Lisbon, 
which came within an ace of falling into his 
hands ; but the Prince did not reach his throne 
through the intervention of his English allies. 
Raleigh sailed in a ship of his own and 
took several Spanish prizes; but there was 
''a fly in his ointment" on this occasion, 
owing to the presence in the fleet of his rival, 
Essex, who had surreptitiously joined it 
while at sea. He had, in very truth, run 
away from their mistress, the Queen, who, 
when she learned of his absence, was frantic. 
A swift vessel was despatched after the fleet, 
with orders to bring back her wandering 
lover and latest favorite; but Sir Roger 
Williams, in whose ship, the Swiftsure, Essex 
was concealed, stood more loyally by him 
than he did by his irate sovereign, and the 
messenger went back without him. 
119 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

If all the English engaged in the march 
upon Lisbon had been as gallant and as 
dauntless as the Earl of Essex, perhaps the 
city might have been taken away from the 
Spaniards and Dom Antonio, seated upon 
the Portuguese throne, for he was at the van 
of the army all the time. He led his soldiers 
right up to the gates of the city, and at- 
tempted to storm it almost alone. When 
at last a retreat was ordered, Essex ftmied 
and raged. Failing to provoke the Span- 
iards within the walls to send out a champion 
to fight him in single combat, he sent a 
challenge to them all combined. Once again 
on board the Swift sure, he found cause for 
complaint against Raleigh, one of whose 
prizes was claimed by Sir Roger Williams. 
It was either upon their return from this un- 
fortunate voyage, or, as some say, imme- 
diately after the Armada defeat, that the 
fiery young Essex challenged his rival to 
fight a duel, which was prevented by the 
Queen's Council, who wished to avoid in- 
volving their sovereign in a scandal, and 
thought best to "bury it in silence." 

This may have been the occasion upon 
which Essex boasted that he had succeeded 
in "chasing Raleigh from court," to which 

I20 



THE FORTUNES OF A COURTIER 

allusion has been made. Sir Walter himself 
asserted, in a letter respecting the affair, 
written to his cousin. Sir George Carew: 
"For my retreat from Court: it was upon 
good cause, to take order for my prize." 
This prize was probably the captured vessel 
in which Sir Roger Williams claimed salvage, 
and on account of which Essex was involved, 
by supporting his friend against his rival. 
The situation was certainly complicated, for 
we find two aspirants for the Queen's favor 
sailing abroad in the same fleet — one in a huff 
because of his banishment, and the other 
fleeing to escape from her blandishments! 

The next view we have of Raleigh reveals 
him in more congenial company than he 
found at court or in the fleet that sailed for 
Portugal; for, shortly after his return to 
England, he paid a visit to his friend and 
brother poet, Edmund Spenser, who, like 
himself, had received a generous gift out of 
the Irish spoliations. From the Earl of 
Desmond's forfeited estate he had been given 
a grant of three thousand acres, and at the 
time of Raleigh's visit was living in pictu- 
resque Kilcolman Castle, in the midst of 
beautiful scenery, but in comparative soli- 
tude. 

121 



SIR WALT.ER RALEIGH 

Neither Raleigh nor Spenser, from the 
very nature of their Irish acquisitions, were 
welcome visitants in Ireland, and their 
ostracism by the natives was almost com- 
plete. But both were poets, both craved, at 
times, just such solitude as lovely Kilcolman 
afforded, and that they enjoyed it to their 
hearts' content Spenser failed not to testify 
in his pastoral, "Colin Clout's Come Home 
Again." Therein Raleigh is the Shepherd 
of the Ocean, who entertained his friend 
with the story of his adventures. Filled as 
he was, however, with a sense of the Queen's 
injustice in banishing him from court, his 
tale, as Spenser renders it, 

"... was all a lamentable lay, 

Of great unkindness and of usage hard, 
Of Cynthia, the Lady of the Sea, 

Which from her presence faultless him debarred. 
And ever and anon, with singulis rife, 

He cried out to make his undersong: 
'Ah, my love's queen, and goddess of my life! 

Who shall me pity, when thou dost me wrong?'" 

Who, indeed, could make reparation but 
the Queen? And who so likely to reward 
an impecunious poet as Elizabeth — provided 
the offering he made should prove acceptable ? 
So the two men of verse put their heads to- 

122 



THE FORTUNES OF A COURTIER 

gether, and the following wondrous lines were 
evolved : 

" When thus our pipes we both had wearied well, 
Quoth he, and each an end of singing made, 
He 'gan to cast great liking to my lore, 

And great disliking to my luckless lot 
That banished had myself, like wight forbore, 

Into that waste, where I was quite forgot. 
The which to leave thenceforth he counselled me, 

Unmeet for man in whom was aught regardful, 
And wend with him his Cynthia to see, 

Whose grace was great, and bounty most re- 
wardjul. 
Besides her peerless skill in making well, 

And all the ornaments of wondrous wit, 
Such as all womankind did far excel, 

Such as the world admired and praised it!" 

Though Spenser did not accompany Ra- 
leigh out of Ireland, '' his Cynthia [Elizabeth] 
to see," he went with him to the manor of 
Youghal, where he was most hospitably en- 
tertained. Either there, or at Kilcolman 
Castle, the two friends discussed the first 
cantos of The Faery Queen, of which Spenser 
had already informed Raleigh, in a letter 
outlining its scope, and sent him at the be- 
ginning of this year, 1589. Acting upon Sir 
Walter's advice, he submitted an instalment 
for publication, the first three books appear- 
123 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

ing in January, 1590, with a poetical address 
to the friend who had been instrumental in 
bringing them out. His direct appeal to 
'Xynthia," with its fulsome flattery, that 
might have proved nauseating to any one 
less vain than Elizabeth, secured him a 
pension of fifty pounds a year/ It was not 
always regularly paid, for the lord treasurer 
had views of his own anent the bestowal of 
this pension, and whenever he grudgingly 
granted the money was wont to grumble: 
"And all this for a song!" 

The " song " has outlived the lord treasurer, 
and the times in which it was written, what- 
ever his opinion as to the reward paid for it, 
as a testimonial to the Queen's most emi- 
nent virtues. Neither Raleigh nor Spenser 
derived from their Irish estates that satis- 
faction, in abundant leisure, to which they 
had looked forward on their acquisition. 
Though the latter rejoiced in the ownership 
of a castle and broad acres, he was never 
possessed of wealth, and finally, in 1598, by 
a recrudescence of the rebellion, was driven 
from Ireland under circumstances of such 

^ " No adulation was too fulsome for her, no flattery 
of her beauty too gross." — Green's Short History of the 
English People. 

124 



THE FORTUNES OF A COURTIER 

barbarity — his castle having been set on 
fire, and one of his children perishing in the 
flames — that his heart was broken, it is said, 
and. his death followed not long after. 

Sir Walter's championship of Spenser, 
whose genius he may be said to have brought 
from obscurity, if he did not discover, was 
an aid to him at court, and by the beginning 
of 1590 he was again established as prime 
favorite. The recovery of his ascendency 
over the Queen may be attributed, rather, 
to the disgrace of Essex, who had offended 
his mistress by marrying without as much 
as saying '' By your leave." As one favorite 
went down, the other went up, and vice 
versa, but, had there been a third favorite, 
it is likely that Raleigh would have received 
the ''cold shoulder." As there was not, and 
as Queen Elizabeth felt the necessity of 
somebody to administer large doses of flat- 
tery continually, Raleigh, whose fount of 
adulation was perennial and inexhaustible, 
was re-established as an adjunct to the 
throne. 

He signalized his return to favor by inter- 
ceding with the Queen for the Puritan, John 
Udall, who had been imprisoned and was 
awaiting sentence of death, or at least of 
125 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

banishment, for advocating reforms in the 
estabHshed church. The Queen's Council was 
determined to silence him, but whether it 
were best to do so by hanging or by banish- 
ment the coimcillors were not agreed. Sir 
Walter nobly stepped forward in Udall's de- 
fence; but before a decision had been ren- 
dered, the poor man died in prison. He was 
a scholar of attainments, uncommon for his 
time, and had to his credit the compiling 
of a Hebrew grammar which was said to 
have been the first that had appeared in 
English; yet he died the death of a felon 
merely because he differed from the Queen 
in matters of ritual, or the least important 
part of religious worship. This event made 
a deep impression on Raleigh, whose views 
on religion were creditable to his head as 
well as his heart. He was charged with 
caring little for religion, and in fact accused 
of atheism, but, as his last days show, most 
unjustly. 

He was the uncompromising foe, not only 
of the Spaniards, but of their religion, and 
once wrote of the Spanish priests: ''For 
matter of religion it would require a par- 
ticular volume to set down how irreligiously 
they cover their greedy and ambitious 
126 



THE FORTUNES OF A COURTIER 

practises with the veil of piety; for, sure am 
I, there is no kingdom or commonwealth in 
all Europe, but if reformed, they invade it 
for 'religion's sake.' If it be, as they term 
'catholic,' they pretend title: as if the kings 
of Castile were the natural heirs of all the 
world; and so, between both, no kingdom is 
unsought." 

This arraignment of the Spaniards and 
their religion was issued at the time Sir 
Walter first appeared to the public as a 
writer of vigorous prose. It was the oc- 
casion of his report on the Truth of the Fight 
about the Isles of the Azores, published in the 
latter part of 1591, which was an account of 
the heroic action and death of his kinsman, 
Sir Richard Grenville. Sir Richard, it will 
be recalled, had commanded Raleigh's Ro- 
anoke fleet in 1585, and was not considered 
altogether blameless for the subsequent mis- 
fortunes of the colony. Still, he was knight- 
ed in 1587, and when, in the summer of 1591, 
rumors were rife that another armada was 
being assembled by Spain to act against 
England, he was sent out to intercept what 
war-ships he could on the high seas. 

He commanded a ship in Admiral Howard's 
squadron called the Revenge, and, in com- 
127 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

pany with his commander, was overtaken in 
the Azores by a fleet of fifty Spanish war- 
ships. There were but six fighting vessels 
in the Enghsh fleet, so the Admiral signalled 
a retreat and set the example by flight. But 
many of Grenville's crew were ashore, and 
before he could get the wind in his sails he 
was surrounded by a cordon of Spanish 
galleons, from which there was no escape. 
Among them was the great San Felipe, a 
ship of fifteen hundred tons, from the over- 
topping decks of which a plunging fire was 
directed upon the doomed Revenge, while 
from ten to fifteen other ships of large size 
joined in the battle, which was waged from 
mid-afternoon till the next morning. Two 
thousand men were killed on both sides, and 
several ships were sunk, but still the Revenge 
held out until a helpless wreck. 

Says Raleigh himself in his account of the 
fight : ' ' Nothing was to be seen but the naked 
hull of a ship, and that almost a skeleton, 
having received eight hundred shot of great 
artillery — some under water; her deck cover- 
ed with the limbs and carcases of forty 
valiant men ; the rest all wounded and paint- 
ed with their own blood ; her masts beat over- 
board; all her tackle cut asunder; her upper 
128 



THE FORTUNES OF A COURTIER 

works razed, and level with the water, and 
she herself incapable of receiving any direc- 
tion or motion, except that given her by the 
billows." 

The gallant Grenville, who was wounded 
early in the action, desired to blow up his ship 
and sink with her to the bottom of the bay, 
but was overruled by the survivors. They 
were forced to surrender, and Grenville was 
taken on board a galleon just in time to ex- 
pire, after venting his valiant spirit in these 
words: ''Here die I, Richard Grenville, with 
a joyful and a quiet mind, for that I have 
ended my life as a true soldier ought to do, 
fighting for his country, his queen, his re- 
ligion, and honor. Whereby my soul most 
joyfully departeth out of this body, and 
shall always leave behind it an everlasting 
fame of a valiant and true soldier, that hath 
done his duty as he was bound to do." ^ 

Grenville sacrificed his life in the service 
of his queen; but the penurious Elizabeth 
perceived only that he had also sacrificed 
one of her noble war-ships, which was the 
first actually taken in battle by the Span- 
iards, who were as rejoiced as the English 

^ Read, in this connection, Tennyson's noble poem, 
•* The Revenge: sl Ballad of the Fleet." 
129 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

were depressed. But Raleigh had no re- 
grets, save for the loss of life, even though 
he himself had fitted out the expedition in 
which had sailed the Revenge. Commenting 
upon the fact that, soon after the fight, 
she and fourteen Spanish war -ships were 
cast away in a storm and destroyed, he says: 
"So it pleased them to honor the burial of 
that renowned ship, the Revenge^ not suffer- 
ing her to perish alone, for the great honor 
she achieved in her lifetime." Equally 
elevated is the sentiment he expresses in re- 
ferring to his cousin's final end: "What be- 
came of his body, whether it were buried in 
the sea or on the land, we know not. The 
comfort that remaineth to his friends is, that 
he hath ended his life honorably in respect 
of the reputation won to his country, and of 
the fame to his posterity; and that, being 
dead, he hath not outlived his own honor.'' 
The Queen's captains were greater than 
their sovereign, for Drake and Hawkins, 
Frobisher, Davis, and Raleigh, would have 
conquered half the Spanish world, and swept 
the wide waters throughout their length and 
breadth, had it not been for the vacillating 
and petticoat ed occupant of the throne. 
She had the power, unfortunately, to con- 
130 



THE FORTUNES OF A COURTIER 

trol, to curb, and throw into prison, if they 
proved recalcitrant, those noble worthies 
who worked so unceasingly for the extension 
of her realm. Elizabeth's whims carried 
greater weight than the matured opinions of 
her counsellors, so what could be expected 
of a nation that had set up such a tyrannical 
virago as its ruler? Somehow it progressed 
— though slowly— in spite of her; somehow 
its enemies were overcome, and its colonies 
were planted, notwithstanding her objections 
to expenses of the sort that were essential 
to great undertakings. But it was not the 
Queen who bore the burdens incidental to 
these expeditions, so much as her enterpris- 
ing subjects; and Sir Walter Raleigh gen- 
erally assumed the major portion, as was 
emphasized in the outfitting of the next ex- 
pedition that sailed in 1592. It consisted 
of fifteen vessels, of which number the Queen 
contributed only two, while Hawkins and 
Raleigh equipped and sent three or four. 
Sir Walter was the author of this scheme for 
attacking the Spaniards in their own waters, 
and not only supervised all the preparations, 
but invested in the expedition more money 
than his whole estate amounted to, having 
had recourse for the purpose to the money- 
10 131 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

lenders, who charged him most usurious 
rates. Yet when a settlement was made, 
after prizes worth several million poimds 
had been captured, the Queen claimed vast- 
ly more than the government's share, and 
barely allowed Raleigh the amount of his 
original contribution, let alone pay for his 
services. 

It was in pursuance of Raleigh's long- 
cherished plan: to weaken the enemy by 
plundering his rich settlements and treasure- 
fleets, such as Panama, Cartagena, and the 
silver-laden carracks that voyaged between 
the isthmus and Seville. To this end the 
expedition was fitted out, of which he had 
the Queen's promise that he should be ad- 
miral. Adverse winds delayed the departure 
of the squadrons until tidings had reached 
Spain, and Raleigh, knowing how futile 
would then be an attack upon people and 
places forewarned, changed the destination 
of the fleet from Panama to the Azores and 
coast of Spain. 

The fifteen vessels had waited in the 
Thames from the middle of March to the 
first of May, and Sir Walter, compelled to 
**row up and dow^n with every tide, from 
Gravesend to London," was, as he expressed 
132 



THE FORTUNES OF A COURTIER 

it, more grieved than ever he was ''at any- 
thing of this world for this cross weather." 
When finally aboard his flag-ship and away, 
he was still within the possibilities of further 
detention, though it was not the wind, this 
time, but a crotchet of the Queen, that took 
him adversely. He was hardly at sea, in 
truth, before Sir Martin Frobisher was after 
him with most peremptory orders to return. 



A PRISONER IN THE TOWER 
1592 

THE orders received by Sir Walter were 
hardly unexpected, for it had been in- 
timated to him two months before that the 
Queen was loath to have him leave her. 
Nor did he intend to disobey her command, 
though he continued with the fleet until well 
on its way to the destinations he himself was 
to designate. Then he divided it into two 
squadrons — one to proceed to the Azores, 
and the other to the coast of Spain, off 
which it was directed to hover threateningly, 
in order to hold in port such war-ships as 
might otherwise sally out to serve as con- 
voys to the plate-fleet, then expected from 
the West Indies. It was this fleet of treas- 
ure-freighted ships, consisting of galleons and 
carracks coming up from Panama and the 
Spanish Main by way of the West Indies, 
that Raleigh desired to intercept. For that 
134 




SIR MARTIN FROBISHER 



A PRISONER IN THE TOWER 

reason he sent the better part of the Eng- 
Hsh fleet to cruise off the Azores, at which isl- 
ands the treasure-ships generally touched and 
received their convoys when on their home- 
ward voyage. 

The squadron that went off to hold the 
Spanish war-ships in check was placed by 
Raleigh under the command of Sir Martin 
Frobisher; the other he gave to Sir John 
Borough, and then, having made every 
arrangement possible that could conduce to 
success, he returned to England (though not 
without misgivings and protests), in obedi- 
ence to the Queen's command. Whether he 
knew what was in store for him, or whether 
he was wholly ignorant of his capricious 
sovereign's intentions, does not fully appear; 
but from a letter which he had written to 
Sir Robert Cecil, on March loth preceding, 
one might infer that he had at least an ink- 
ling of what was disturbing her Majesty: 

" I receved your letters this present day concern- 
ing the wages of the mariners and others. For 
myne owne part, I am very willing to enter 
bonde, as you perswaded me; but, I pray, con- 
sider that I have adventured here all that I am 
worth, and must do, ere I depart on this voyage. 
If it fall not out well, I can but lose all, and if 

135 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

nothing be remayning, wherewith shall I pay the 
wages? Besides, her Majestie tould me her selfe 
she was contented to pay her parte, and my own 
Lord Admiral his, and that I should but discharge 
for myne own shipps. 

"And, further, I have promised her Majestie 
that, if I can perswade the Cumpanies to follow 
Sir Marten Forbisher, I will without fail return 
after bringing the shipps into the sea only some 
fifty or sixty leagues, for which purpose my Lord 
Admiral hath lent me the Disdayne, . . . But, Sir, 
for mee then to be bounde for so great a sum, 
upon the hope of another man's fortune, I will 
be loth ; and besides, if I were able, I see no privy 
seal for my thirds! 

"I mean not to cum away, as they say I will, 
for fear of a marriage, and I know not what. If 
any such thing were, I would have imparted it 
unto your selfe before any man living ; and there- 
fore I pray you believe it not, and I beseich you 
to suppress what you can any such malicious 
report. For I protest before God, there is none, 
on the face of the y earth, that I would he fastened 
unto! 

" And so, in haste I take my leve of your Honor. 
"Yours ever to be cummanded, 

"W. Ralegh." 



It appears that for weeks previous to the 
departure of the fleet there were rumors 
afloat respecting the secret marriage, or en- 
tanglement, of Sir Walter Raleigh with a 
136 



A PRISONER IN THE TOWER 

fair lady of Queen Elizabeth's court. As 
will shortly appear, though the Queen based 
her order for his return ostensibly upon 
solicitude for his welfare, desiring that he 
should not remain away for so long a time 
as the voyage might last, there was really an 
una vowed reason for that command. 

Queen Elizabeth's wrath had blazed forth 
when, two years before, Essex, by a secret 
marriage with Sir Philip Sidney's widow, had 
incurred her fierce displeasure ; but his punish- 
ment was mild, indeed, compared with that 
she meted out to Raleigh. Immediately 
upon his return from his sea -trip he was 
committed to the Tower of London as a 
prisoner, there to remain during the Queen's 
pleasure — or, rather, her displeasure — for he 
had offended her deeply. He did not need 
to be told with what offence he was charged, 
for no one knew better than he the full 
measure of his guilt. He had said, in his 
letter to Sir Robert Cecil, that ''there was 
none on the face of the earth that he would 
be fastened to," or, in other words, would 
marry; but, while this may have been true 
as to his intent, there was one upon whom, in 
justice to her and to himself, he should have 
bestowed his name and title. 
^37 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

Of the ladies in waiting upon the Queen, 
there was none fairer or better-bom than 
the stately Elizabeth Throgmorton. She was 
the orphaned daughter of Sir Nicholas 
Throgmorton, who had died in 1570, after 
having served his sovereign faithfully in 
several capacities. As ambassador to France 
he had displayed a high degree of statesman- 
ship and won the regard of the Queen, who 
had adopted his daughter as one of her maids 
of honor. She also bore her name, Elizabeth, 
and is thought to have stood to the Queen 
in the relation of god-daughter. Her mental 
gifts were great, and her beauty was un- 
deniable. She soon attracted the attention 
of the gallant captain of the Queen's Guard, 
who was brought into frequent communica- 
tion with the ''ladies of the bedchamber," 
for whom, however, he professed but scant 
esteem. He had been heard to say, in truth, 
that they were like witches, "who could do 
no good, but might easily do harm." When, 
therefore, it was discovered that haughty 
Sir Walter and the beautiful Bess had com- 
mitted an indiscretion which the Queen 
could not consistently overlook, even were 
she unprejudiced, great was the excitement 
among the ladies of the court. The erring 
138 



A PRISONER IN THE TOWER 

woman was dismissed from the Queen's 
presence in disgrace, and for his share in the 
affair Sir Walter Raleigh was sent to the 
Tower. 

Whatever may have been Elizabeth's 
motives — and they certainly were not un- 
biassed — there is little doubt that her former 
favorite fully deserved his punishment; for, 
while he had been subject to her caprices, 
and treated more like a spoiled boy than a 
man, he yet had shared her confidence, which 
he shamefully betrayed. In contrasting the 
two culprits, let it be said, in passing, that the 
erring but sweet and womanly Bess Throg- 
morton developed a stronger nature, under 
the trials to which the twain were subjected, 
than her copartner, the fawning and cring- 
ing Sir Walter. She retired to a privacy 
which might never have been broken but 
for their marriage in the Tower shortly after 
Raleigh's incarceration there; and during 
their subsequent life together she proved a 
devoted helpmeet and reliable support. Her 
demeanor is not described, for she was not 
such a commanding figure as her husband, 
at that time, in the world's estimation, but 
his conduct when in the Tower was not such 
as would win admiration either from friend 
139 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

or foe. He had so long beguiled the Queen 
with adulation that he seemed to think she 
might relent and pardon him were he only 
able to show himself still her devoted slave 
pining in prison for a glimpse of her. Thus, 
one day, when he saw, through the barred 
windows of his cell, a royal procession of 
boats and barges on the river, he suddenly 
"brake out into a great distemper, and swore 
that his enemies had on purpose brought her 
Majesty hither to brake his gall in sunder 
with Tatalus's torments, in order that when 
she went away he might see his death before 
his very eyes." 

He declared to his keeper that he must 
get into a boat and follow the Queen, "else 
his heart would surely break, " but the man 
demurred, seeming to doubt if his heart were 
so fragile; and in discussing the matter the 
two came to blows, daggers were drawn, and 
a friend who interfered got his knuckles 
slashed for his foolishness. As he tells the 
tale: "At the first I was ready to break 
with laughing, to see the two scramble and 
brawl like madmen, until I saw the iron 
walking [the daggers drawn], and then I 
did my best to appease their fury. . . . Thus 
I purchased such a rap on the knuckles 
140 



A PRISONER IN THE TOWER 

that I wished both their pates were broken; 
and so, with much ado, they stayed their 
brawl to see my bloody fingers. As yet I 
cannot reconcile them by any persuasions, 
for Sir Walter swears that he shall hate his 
keeper [Sir George Carew] for so restraining 
him from a sight of his mistress." 

This account, of course, was carried to the 
Queen, and it may have somewhat softened 
her heart toward the recreant swain — as 
doubtless was Sir Walter's intention when he 
made the scene. We would like to believe 
that this affray never took place, that this 
man, so capable of vast emprises, would not 
condescend to play the fool merely to ob- 
tain his freedom; but unfortunately he has 
left at least one letter, in which are senti- 
ments as mawkish as those he professed to 
his keeper. In this letter, which was written 
to Sir Robert Cecil, he pours out his griefs 
as follows: 

"... My heart was never broken till this day, that 
I hear the Queen goes away so far off whom I have 
followed so many years, with so great love and 
desire, in so many journeys, and am now left 
behind her, in a dark prison all alone. While she 
was yet nere at hand, that I might hear of her 
once in two or three dayes, my sorrows were the 
less; but now my heart is cast into the depth of 
141 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

all misery. I, that was wont to behold her riding 
like Alexander, hunting like Diana, walking like 
Venus, the gentle wind blowing her hair about 
her pure cheeks, like a nymph; sometime sitting 
in the shade like a goddess, sometime singing like 
an angell, sometime playing like Orpheus! 

"Behold the sorrow of this world! One amiss 
hath bereaved me of all. O Glory! that only 
shineth in misfortune, what is becum of thy as- 
surance? All wounds have skares but that of 
fantasie; all affections their relenting but that 
of womankind. Who is the judge of friendship 
but adversity? or when is grace witnessed but in 
offences? There were no divinity but by reason 
of compassion; for revenges are brutish and 
mortall. 

"All those times past — the loves, the sythes, 
the sorrows, the desires — can they not way [weigh] 
down one frail misfortune? Cannot one dropp 
of gall be hidden in so great heaps of sweetness ? 

"... She is gone, in whom I trusted, and of me 
hath not one thought of mercy, nor any respect of 
that which was. Do with me now, therefore, what 
you list. I am more weary of life than they who 
are desirous I should perish; which, if it had 
been for her, as it is by her, I had been too hap- 
pily bom! 

"Y'rs, not worthy any name of title, 

"W. R." 

Had the Queen not been apprised of this 
remarkable effusion, the languishing Sir Wal- 
ter would have been at all this labor for 
142 



A PRISONER IN THE TOWER 

nothing ; but, as it was, she refused to relent. 
Further than this in hyperbole the prisoner 
surely could not go, and if this letter would 
not move his mistress nothing on earth 
could, he felt assured. He had not, how- 
ever, touched her heart-strings with his 
plaints, though her anger was appeased when 
he filled her coffers with gold and gems from 
the privateering expedition which he had 
sent out to Spain and the Azores. 

Elizabeth was obdurate, and would neither 
restore her quondam favorite to liberty nor 
to favor; and he might perhaps have remain- 
ed in the Tower during the remainder of her 
natural life but for the return to England of 
Sir John Boroughs with one of the largest 
and richest prizes that was ever brought 
into a British port. This was a huge car- 
rack called the Madre de Dios (Mother of 
God.) She was an immense ship for those 
days, a veritable floating castle, with seven 
decks, or stories, and towered above every 
other vessel on the ocean. The fight in 
which she was captured, Sir John Boroughs 
reported, lasted from ten in the morning 
till midnight, and she was taken by Sir 
Walter's own ship, the Roehiick. 

Such rich treasures as were found in her 
143 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

holds surpassed everything imagined by 
the most sanguine officials of the realm, and 
the news spread rapidly all over England. 
Everybody who could, and especially the 
rapacious hangers-on at the court, made 
great haste to visit the captured carrack at 
Darmouth, in the hope of sharing the spoils ; 
but there was one notable exception — the 
prisoner in the Tower, through whose efforts 
the expedition was fitted out that had re- 
sulted so gloriously. Only a short time 
before he had written to the Lord High Ad- 
miral of England, bitterly complaining of his 
enforced inaction while great and glorious 
deeds awaited him : 

"I was yesterday advised by a man of 
mine, coming from the coast of Brittany, 
that there are twenty Spanish ships -of -war 
lying between Scilly and Ushant, to take up 
our new levied men, and to search for prizes 
that shall be sent home. If any of the ships 
in the narrow seas were sent for a time, or 
other course taken, it were most necessary; 
or else we shall lose all, and be the scorn of 
nations. But we are so much busied with 
the affairs of other nations (of whose tan- 
gled troubles there will be no end) that we 
forget our own affairs, our profit, and our 
honor. . . . 

144 



A PRISONER IN THE TOWER 

*'I see there is a determination to dis- 
grace and ruin me, and therefore I beseech 
your Lordship not to offend her Majesty 
any more by sueing for me. I am now re- 
solved in the matter, and only desire that I 
may be stayed no one hour from all the 
extremities that either law or precedent can 
avouch. . . . For the torment of the mind 
cannot be greater; and for the body — would 
that others did respect themselves as much 
as I value it at little." 

The coming of the great carrack did for 
Sir Walter what neither his letters nor the 
influence of his friends could do: it brought 
about his release from durance. When the 
men who manned that fleet which he had 
fitted out and sent to certain victory learned 
of his disgrace and imprisonment, they de- 
manded in no uncertain tones that he be at 
once released. They were, in truth, on the 
verge of mutiny, and Sir John Hawkins wrote 
to Lord Burghley, with the bluffness of an 
old sea-dog: *'Sir Walter Raleigh is the es- 
pecial man to bring this to some good effect " 
— to curb the mutinous sailors, and save 
from absolute spoliation the great carrack 's 
precious treasures. He wrote much more, 
but to the same effect, with the result that 
145 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

the Queen was made to see that her interests 
would best be served by setting the prisoner 
at hberty. He was then released, but con- 
ditionally only, as a state prisoner, in custody 
of a keeper, and in this manner journeyed 
post-haste to Dartmouth. 

Lord Cecil's son Robert had preceded 
him, like many another, anxious to seize 
some of those precious pearls and spices 
before all had been appropriated, and es- 
pecially before Sir Walter should arrive and 
put a stop to the sacking of the carrack. 
He reached Dartmouth in season to se- 
questrate some gold and gems, including a 
spoon of crystal set with rubies which, he 
said, he had reserved for the Queen. The 
letter in which he announced this fact to 
his father closed with these significant words : 
''Her Majesty's captive comes after me; hut 
I have outrid him- /' ' Two days later he wrote : 

'' Within one half-hour Sir Walter Raleigh 
arrived with his keeper, and I asstire you, 
sir, his poor servants, to the number of one 
hundred and forty goodly men, and all the 
mariners, came to him with such shouts and 
joy as I never saw a man more troubled 
to quiet them in my life. But his heart is 
broken; for he is very extreme, pensive longer 
146 



A PRISONER IN THE TOWER 

than he is busied, in which he can toil ter- 
ribly. 

**The meeting between him and Sir John 
Gilbert [his half-brother] was with tears on 
Sir John's part. Whensoever he is saluted 
with congratulations for liberty, he doth 
answer: 'No, I am still the Queen of Eng- 
land's poor captive!' I wished him to con- 
ceal it, because here it doth diminish his 
credit — which, I do vow to you, before God, 
is greater among the mariners than I thought 
for. I do grace him as much as I may, for 
I find him marvellous greedy to do anything 
to recover the conceit of his brutish offence. 
Sir John Gilbert's heart was so great, till 
his brother was at liberty, as he never 
came but once to the town, and never was 
aboard." 

It came as a surprise to Cecil, as well as 
to Raleigh himself, that Sir Walter was 
found so popular with his men; but the 
manifest injustice with which he had been 
treated, and the imiversal conviction that 
he was the real hero of the great event, swept 
him into public esteem on the crest of the 
wave. There had been, perhaps, no man 
less popular in all England, owing to his 
equivocal connection with the sovereign, 
his holdings of oppressive monopolies, and 

" 147 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

as a beneficiary of so many confiscated 
estates. But the short-sighted public for- 
got his previous errors, and readily forgave 
his many omissions, when it appeared that 
he had suffered intensely for his errors, and 
was still the object of the Queen's con- 
demnation. 

When it further appeared that Elizabeth, 
though she had contributed but meagrely 
to the equipment of the expedition, now en- 
tered claim for the lion's share of the rich 
spoils, to the exclusion of those, and notably 
Raleigh, who had adventured almost their 
entire possessions, there was a radical re- 
vulsion in his favor. **The Queen's personal 
covetousness," says one who would rather 
praise than depreciate her character, "was 
at length excited to a degree which sets in 
strong relief the petty trickeries wherewith, 
in the preceding Spring, it had endeavored to 
throw every possible shilling of outlay upon 
those who were to risk both life and liveli- 
hood in an enterprise which, if it was not 
the legitimate service of the Crown and 
people of England, was mere piracy.'' 

The total value of the carrack's cargo, 
after much portable property in gems, gold, 
silks, ebony, pearls, and tapestries had been 
148 



A PRISONER IN THE TOWER 

pilfered, was appraised by the royal com- 
missioners at a sum amounting to more than 
three million dollars, in approximate money 
values of the present day. The Queen, or 
the government, had contributed not more 
than one-tenth of the outlay, yet she was 
assigned more than one-half; while Raleigh, 
who had all but impoverished himself in the 
equipment of the fleet, received less than 
he had advanced, without taking account of 
his services and the money invested by his 
friends and copartners. 

In a paper left behind him at his death, 
Raleigh complains: ''We that served the 
Queen and assisted her service have not our 
own again. I was the cause that all this hath 
come to her, and that the King of Spain hath 
spent three hundred thousand poimds the 
last year. And [yet] I lose, in the past year, 
in the voyage of my Lord Thomas Howard, 
£i,6oo, besides the interest of ;£ii,ooo, 
which I have paid ever since this voyage 
began. ... I carried the ships from hence to 
Falmouth, and thence to the North Cape of 
Spain; and they only sat still and did but 
disburse. Double is quits to them, and less 
than mine own to me." 

It was at Sir Walter's suggestion, however, 
149 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

that the Queen was paid five times the 
amount to which she was entitled, and he 
surely had a reason for it, as appears from 
a passage in a letter written by him from the 
Tower, previous to his trip to Dartmouth: 
"Fivescore thousand pounds is more than 
ever a man presented her Majesty as yet. 
If God hath sent it for my ransom, I hope her 
Majesty, of her abundant goodness, will ac- 
cept it!" This was the view possibly taken 
by the Queen, for she certainly accepted 
the apportionment without a qualm of con- 
science as to her companion-adventurers; 
and that it may have been considered as 
Sir Walter's ransom might be inferred from 
the fact that he did not return from Dart- 
mouth to the Tower. 



XI 

SIR WALTER AND EL DORADO 
1595 

TWO years of peace and quietude suc- 
ceeded to the stress and storm of the 
period we have just passed in review. Al- 
though released from custody, Raleigh was 
long after out of favor with the Queen, and, 
banished from her presence, sought solace 
with the rightful queen of his affections — 
the Elizabeth whom he had made his wife. 
These two made their home at Sherborne, 
in Dorsetshire, an estate that had been pre- 
sented Sir Walter by the Queen, and which 
was for years his favorite place of residence. 
Here he planted trees and laid out gardens, 
wrote poetry, and — ''fell in love with his 
wife," whom he discovered to be the very 
treasure for which he had been looking all 
his life. Without her, he realized, his life 
would thereafter be quite incomplete, for she 
entered into his every plan and scheme, 
151 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

sympathized with him in affliction, and re- 
joiced in his successes. 

Their brief period of rest and domestic 
enjoyment at Sherborne was perhaps less 
irksome to her than to the man who had 
more than once managed the affairs of a 
kingdom in an advisory capacity — or, at 
least, had held the hand that was supposed 
to guide the helm of the nation. Tranquil- 
lity was soothing to Sir Walter ; but it also 
palled upon him, after the wounds received 
in his affrays had healed. He was not con- 
tent with planting, with beautifying his es- 
tate, with the adoration of one who loved 
him truly and would have made any sacri- 
fice to retain him by her side; but the old 
restlessness came over him, and he soon be- 
gan the planning of another voyage. 

This time he was disposed to sail into the 
south and the west, to a far-distant country 
which hitherto had not tempted him with 
its treasures. Less than three months after 
his retirement, or in February, 1593, there 
are indications of this desire in a letter 
written by Lady Raleigh to Lord Robert 
Cecil, in which she betrays her anxiety lest 
her husband be drawn into some new venture 
that would take him far away from home 
152 



SIR WALTER AND EL DORADO 

and family. After the customary common- 
places, she says: "... I hope, for my sake, 
you will rather draw Water [Sir Walter] from 
the East than help him forward toward the 
sunset, if any respect to me or love to him 
be not forgotten. But every month hath 
his flower, and every season his content- 
ment; and you great counsellors are so full 
of new counsels that you are steady in noth- 
ing. We poor souls, that have bought sor- 
row at a high price, desire and can be pleased 
with the same misfortunes we hold, fearing 
that alterations will but multiply our mis- 
eries, of which we have already felt sufficient. 
I know only your persuasions are of effect 
with him, and held as oracles tied together 
by love; therefore, I humbly beseech you, 
rather stay him than further him. By the 
which you shall bind me for ever." 

Two years passed before the voyage which 
he had in contemplation was realized, but, 
having yielded that much to his wife's en- 
treaties, Sir Walter felt constrained no longer 
to delay it. He loved his wife, but he craved 
the favor of his Queen, which had been so 
long denied him, and to regain it he con- 
ceived an enterprise that was calculated to 
win her admiration. It was nothing less 
153 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

than a voyage to the mouth of the Orinoco, 
and an expedition up that river in search of 
a mysterious kingdom known as El Dorado 
(The Golden) . Not alone the Queen's favor 
would he win thereby, he reasoned, but at 
the same time gratify his desire to despoil 
their common enemy, the Spaniards; for 
the mouths of the Orinoco were blockaded 
by the Spaniards, who held control of Trini- 
dad, lying to the north of them, and who 
were supposed to have planted settlements 
on the great river. Nearly one hundred 
years had elapsed since Columbus discovered 
Trinidad and the waters adjacent, and though 
the Spaniards had been tardy in forming 
settlements, they had long since worked out 
the pearl fisheries of Cubagua and Margarita, 
off Paria, and had begun to exploit the gold- 
mines of the main. 

Just when the idea took possession of Sir 
Walter, or how he became acquainted with 
the legends upon which he based his hypoth- 
esis of a golden kingdom in South America, 
is not known; but the first was firmly fixed 
in his mind, and the second was certainly 
existent in traditions which had been con- 
veyed by Indians to the Spaniards. From 
the time of their first visits to the north 
154 



SIR WALTER AND EL DORADO 

coast of South America, the conquistadors 
were informed of regions full of gold lying 
adjacent to that coast or near the rivers 
running down to it from the interior. Balboa 
was told that gold was so abundant there 
that it could be gathered in nets stretched 
across the streams. Ojeda was lured to his 
ruin by stories of a golden city in the wilder- 
ness of Venezuela, back of the peninsula of 
Coro and Lake Maracaibo. And the famed 
''Dorado/' be it golden city or gold-covered 
king, of South American aborigines was 
eagerly sought for during the greater part 
of the sixteenth century. 

It matters not to us of the present era 
that the golden city of Manoa, with its walls 
and roofs covered with the precious metal, 
and the "gilded king," who was powdered 
with gold-dust and bathed in a wonderful 
lake, are considered as myths. They seemed 
real to the Spanish conquerors, and for many, 
many years they searched for both, sac- 
rificing lives by the hundred and treas- 
ure incalculable in their pursuit of the de- 
lusion. Not alone Spaniards, but adven- 
turers of another nationality, the German, 
poured out their blood like water spilled on 
the ground and broke their hearts in vain 
155 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

endeavor to locate Manoa and its gilded 
king. 

The first intimation of El Dorado came 
from an Indian of Bogota, who, sent by his 
cacique on an embassage to the Inca of 
Peru, and finding the land in possession of 
strangers — the Spaniards under Pizarro — 
told them of the tradition prevalent in his 
country. This was that in a mountain re- 
gion not far distant from the coast lived a 
mighty cacique who, on certain festival days, 
repaired to a lake kept sacred for the pur- 
pose, where he performed an ablution. He 
was stripped of his clothing, then smeared 
with perfumed balsam, and dusted from 
head to foot with powdered gold. He was 
then, according to the Indian legend, the 
great and glorious "Gilded King," or, as 
rendered in Spanish, El Dorado. This is 
the origin of the Spanish word, now adopted 
into our own language as descriptive of a 
golden region, or land, rather than an in- 
dividual. 

Having been converted into a golden 
image for the adoration of his people, the 
cacique embarked in his canoe, and, after 
reverential ceremonies had been performed, 
plunged into the sacred waters, where he 
156 



SIR WALTER AND EL DORADO 

left the gold with which he had been covered, 
in token that the offences of his people had 
been washed away. 

This was the tradition that, descended 
from the aboriginal Indians to the Spaniards, 
reached Sir Walter Raleigh in England by- 
some means unknown, but probably through 
reports of the various expeditions sent out 
in search of El Dorado. The gold-roofed 
city of Manoa, built upon the shore of a 
great lake surrounded by glistening moun- 
tains, and the prince powdered from head 
to foot with gold, "so that he resembled a 
golden god, worked by the hands of a skilful 
artist," were to be found, the Indians said, 
not far distant from the coast, but beyond 
the mountains. They could be reached by 
a journey up the Orinoco, and when once 
discovered ''billets of gold would be found 
lying about in heaps, as if they were logs of 
wood stacked up to bum." 

The earliest attempt to enter the golden 
region was in 1530, by a German named 
Alfinger, who set out from Coro, on the coast 
of Venezuela, with two hundred Spaniards 
and twice as many Indians, the latter chain- 
ed together in pairs and serving as carriers. 
Nearly all perished in the untrodden forest; 
157 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

but seven years later two other Germans led 
expeditions into the unknown wilds, and 
with a like result. 

The Germans, soon after, abandoned the 
attempt upon El Dorado, but the Spaniards 
still persisted. That wonderful voyage made 
by Orellana down the Amazon, in 1540, re- 
vived the stories relating to the Golden City 
and king, and set in motion a series of ex- 
plorations extending over a period of more 
than forty years. In the year 1560 Don 
Pedro de Ursua followed in Pizarro's and Orel- 
lana's tracks from Peru with an El Dorado 
expedition which was fated to be the most 
sanguinary, as well as the most wonderful, 
of any that ever set forth on such a quest. 
After reaching the Orellana — as the Amazon 
was then called — Ursua was murdered, at 
the instigation of the second in command, 
one Lope de Aguirre, who thereby became the 
leader. Under him the soldiers and colonists, 
several hundred in number, proceeded down 
the great river, capturing inoffensive Indians 
and putting them to torture, in vain effort to 
extort from them information of El Dorado. 

Finally, after more than seven months' 
wandering and drifting dow^n various rivers, 
they emerged from one of the Orinoco's 
158 



SIR WALTER AND EL DORADO 

mouths, and thence made their way across 
the Bay of Paria to the island called Mar- 
garita, which they reached in July, 1561. 

They had become inured to suffering, and 
though they had found but little gold, and 
received no tidings of the golden kingdom 
they were seeking, they still had faith in the 
tradition. Their spirits were not broken, 
nor was their thirst for blood yet quenched; 
for, learning that the island was rich in 
pearls (being one from which the Spaniards 
had taken vast quantities), Aguirre decoyed 
the governor to the shore, where his canoes 
were beached, and there massacred him and 
all his troops. He then plundered the public 
treasury of the so-termed ''king's fifths" of 
gold and pearls, which had been accumulating 
for shipment to Spain, sacked all the dwell- 
ings in the settlement, and killed or put to 
inhuman torture many men and women. 

Sailing across to Venezuela, Aguirre and 
his Maranones (men of the Maranon) — a 
name since bestowed upon conspirators of 
their sort — coasted the main, and at last 
landed at the site of Puerto Cabello. Thence 
they proceeded inland to Valencia, where 
at length the people were aroused and be- 
gan to assemble under arms. The people of 
159 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

Valencia having fled to an island in a lake, 
the Maranones destroyed their dwellings and 
gardens, then set out on the long journey to 
Santa Fe de Bogota, believing that on the 
way they would probably find the golden- 
roofed Manoa. But before they reached the 
frontier they were surrounded by the enrag- 
ed Venezuelans in overwhelming numbers, 
and a fierce battle was fought at a place 
known as Barquisimento. 

Aguirre fought with ferocious bravery, 
but finding the odds against him, and seeing 
escape impossible (having placed himself 
beyond the hope of pardon or mercy), he 
slew his daughter, who had accompanied him, 
and was shot to death by the Venezuelans. 

Thus disastrously ended the last great 
expedition commanded by Spaniards in 
search of El Dorado, though a smaller one 
was made in 1582, thirteen years before the 
English, under Raleigh, took up the quest. 
The first of the kind was organized at Coro, 
in Venezuela, the soil of which, many years 
later, was drenched with the blood of the 
last victim to the delusion, at the behest of 
one who seemed to hold human life to be 
worth less than gold. It is believed that Sir 
Walter Raleigh must have seen the narrative 
160 



SIR WALTER AND EL DORADO 

of Aguirre's wanderings, and, barring his 
cruelties, found something to commend in 
the madman's career. One sentiment these 
two, the EngHshman and the Spaniard, held 
in common: hatred and suspicion of that 
arch-fiend, Philip of Spain. The King's 
character was depicted in the blackest colors 
by Aguirre in a letter which he left behind 
at Margarita, for transmission to Spain, ad- 
dressed to: 

"King Philip, a Spaniard, son of Charles 
the Invincible." 

Aguirre's characterization of the Span- 
iards by one who knew them intimately, 
and in fact was one of them, must have fully 
confirmed Sir Walter in the opinion he had 
long since formed respecting the nation 
with which England was waging inter- 
mittent war. Aguirre, ''the madman," had 
the wit and the effrontery to paint the Span- 
iards in their proper colors. He told the 
truth — of that Raleigh must have been con- 
vinced; and, having shown himself truthful 
in one instance, why should not his state- 
ments respecting El Dorado be true? 

The historian Hume has denounced Sir 
Walter for placing credence in these fabulous 
stories, but he did not take into considera- 
i6i 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

tion that the Spaniards had beHeved in them 
to the extent of sending out great expedi- 
tions on the strength of them alone. 

The last search previous to that conducted 
by Raleigh was by Antonio de Berreo, then 
acting governor of Trinidad, who, according 
to Captain Whiddon, had expended much 
treasure in that search. Captain Whiddon 
was sent out by Raleigh, in 1594, to make 
a preliminary survey of the Orinoco. He 
made the acquaintance of Berreo in Trini- 
dad, where he was at first hospitably re- 
ceived. But when Berreo learned the nature 
of his visit — that it was for the purpose of 
ascertaining the correct route up the Orinoco 
to the country of the Gilded King — his atti- 
tude changed from friendly to hostile at 
once. Finding a party of Whiddon 's men 
ashore, where they were hunting in the 
forest, he promptly placed them in prison, 
where they were kept so long that the Eng- 
lish captain returned home without them. 
His report was unsatisfactory, for he had 
learned nothing of the way to Manoa, and 
he had aroused the suspicions of the Span- 
iards; nevertheless, Sir Walter concluded 
to make the voyage and see for himself the 
wonders of the Golden City. 
162 



XII 

THE EXPEDITION TO GUIANA 
1595 

WITH five ships and their complements 
of sailors, in addition to ''a handful 
of men, being in all about a hundred gentle- 
men, soldiers, rowers, boat - keepers, boys, 
and of all sorts," Sir Walter Raleigh set out 
on his first known expedition to America 
He left the port of Plymouth on February 
6, 1595, and first sailed for the Canary Isles, 
where he took a Spanish ship laden with 
firearms, and also a Flemish vessel with a 
cargo of wine. Proceeding on his voyage, 
he arrived at Trinidad, the island which he 
had so long kept in view as a nest of Spanish 
intriguers and traitors, without mishap oc- 
curring to his fleet, and there made prepara- 
tions for ascending the Orinoco River. 

First, however, he "paid his respects" to 
Governor Berreo, whom he found intrenched 
at the newly settled town of St. Joseph. 
la 163 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

By a skilfully planned attack on the place 
by night he made the governor prisoner, 
and after having burned the beginnings of 
a town, took him on board his flag -ship. 
There he was treated with every courtesy, 
and, becoming communicative, related all 
he knew of the Golden City and the way 
thither. It was not much, in truth, for, like 
all the numerous companies who had pre- 
ceded him, Berreo had discovered nothing 
of value, although he had heard much. In 
the year preceding, he said, he had invaded 
Guiana from New Granada with seven hun- 
dred horsemen, and after waging a desultory 
war with the natives, had secured several 
images of fine gold different from anything 
else he had ever seen. These he had sent to 
Spain by his camp-master, Domingo de Vera, 
whose accounts of the rich and wonderful 
region had stimulated the Spanish govern- 
ment to send out an expedition, which was, he 
believed, even then on the way to Trinidad. 
Berreo also showed to Raleigh an official 
copy of the records of San Juan de Puerto 
Rico, by which it appeared that one Juan 
Martinez, having been stranded there in 
poverty many years before, had made a de- 
position, when at the point of death, relating 
164 



THE EXPEDITION TO GUIANA 

to the city of Manoa, which he claimed to 
have visited. He was, he said, with the re- 
nowned Diego de Ordaz when he explored 
the Orinoco, in 1531, as master of ordnance. 
When they had penetrated about three 
hundred miles inland their powder took fire 
and exploded. As Martinez was in charge, 
he was held responsible and condemned to 
death, but the sentence was mitigated to 
the extent of placing him alone in a canoe 
and setting him adrift on the waters of the 
Orinoco. After drifting about for many 
days he was rescued by some Indians, who 
took him a long journey overland to Manoa, 
where the Inca, he deposed, received him gra- 
ciously and entertained him in his palace. 
He lived there seven months, but was not 
allowed to wander outside the city without 
being blindfolded. In this manner he had 
been brought there, he said, and led by the 
hand during a journey from the river of 
fourteen days. *'He avowed at his death 
that he entered the city at noon, when they 
uncovered his face; that he travelled all 
that day, till night, throughout the city, 
and the next day from sunrise to simsetting, 
ere he came to the palace of the Inca." 
Here was information which, having come 
165 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

from a man who believed himself about to 
die, Raleigh received as credible indeed. All 
the stories he had previously heard were 
confirmed in the main, excepting that re- 
lating to the gilded king, for Martinez 
affirmed that he had called Manoa ''the 
golden" merely because of ''the abun- 
dance of golden images, plates, and armor 
which he beheld there. ' ' When he left Manoa 
for the coast the Inca presented him with 
as much gold as his guides could carry to 
the river; but hostile natives beyond the 
border robbed him of his treasure, except 
two calabashes filled with gold beads, which 
he gave to the monks of Porto Rico, at whose 
monastery he died, to pay for masses for his 
soul. 

The deposition of the master of ordnance 
had been taken to Spain by De Vera, who, 
at the very time that Raleigh was listening to 
its recital by Berreo, was on the ocean with a 
fleet provided by his sovereign and the city 
of Seville, as the result of the enthusiasm it 
had awakened. The fleet consisted of five 
ships, filled with a host of volunteers, com- 
prising veteran soldiers as well as monks 
and priests. This force would soon be at 
his orders. Governor Berreo assured his 
i66 



THE EXPEDITION TO GUIANA 

captor, and, as it greatly exceeded that at 
Raleigh's disposal, he advised the English to 
retreat while they might with good grace. 

When Sir Walter assured him that Guiana 
was the objective of his long voyage and 
journey also, Berreo showed great distress, 
and did everything in his power to turn him 
back. In addition, he said, to the probabil- 
ity of the Spanish fleet arriving while he 
was absent, and cutting off his retreat, were 
the difficulties of navigation, the Orinoco 
at that season being particularly dangerous, 
owing to the swelling of its current by the 
innumerable streams that ran into it from 
the mountains. 

But Sir Walter was inflexible, for he had 
dreamed of making this expedition many 
years ; he had at last arrived at the mouths 
of the Orinoco, and a few hundred miles more 
of travel might take him to the goal of his 
ambition. He was not easily turned from 
his purpose, once having made up his mind, 
and not all Berreo's warnings could move 
him an iota. When the latter was finally 
assured that he was determined to make the 
effort. Sir Walter says, "he received it with 
a great melancholy and sadness, and used 
all the arguments he could to dissuade me, 
167 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

also assuring the gentlemen of my company 
that it would be labor lost, and that they 
would suffer many miseries if they pro- 
ceeded." 

Miseries manifold, indeed, they suffered, 
for Governor Berreo had by no means ex- 
aggerated the difficulties and dangers of the 
water route up the Orinoco ; still, if they were 
twice as many, and the alleged distance twice 
as great, Raleigh was determined to pro- 
ceed. He caused an old galleon to be cut 
down till it drew not more than five feet of 
water, and in this nondescript craft, ''fash- 
ioned like a galley," a large barge, a small 
boat from the Lion's Whelp, and two wher- 
ries, he embarked one hundred men and boys, 
with a month's provisions for the entire 
crew. His troubles began at the very out- 
set of the voyage, for both wind and current 
were very strong in crossing Guanipa Bay, 
and of the several mouths through which the 
Orinoco emptied its turbulent waters the 
perplexed navigators knew not which one to 
choose. Sir Walter had obtained an Indian 
guide at Gallo, in the Gulf of Paria, where he 
had left his ships ; but he became bewildered 
among the net- work of streams, and but for 
the accidental discovery of a canoe, in which 
i68 



THE EXPEDITION TO GUIANA 

were natives of the region, the party might 
have been lost. 

''If God had not sent us help," declares 
the pious Raleigh, ** we might have wandered 
a whole year in that labyrinth of rivers ere 
we had found any way, either out or in; for 
I know all the earth doth not yield the like 
confluence of streams and branches, the one 
crossing the other so many times, and all so 
fair and large, and so like one to another, as 
no man can tell which to take." 

Giving chase to the canoe in his barge, 
Sir Walter overtook the little craft and made 
captive its occupants, one of whom proved 
to be an expert pilot. ''He was a nat- 
ural of those rivers," says Raleigh, "and 
but for him I think we had never found 
the way either to Guiana or back to our 
shipps." 

Raleigh's treatment of the Indians was con- 
sistently humane throughout, for he never 
allowed violence to be offered any, and at 
Trinidad had released from captivity five 
caciques whom Berreo had chained together 
by the neck and was about to put to the 
torture. According to one historian, in 
fact, he had already tortured them, for he 
says: "These unhappy creatures had been 
169 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

subjected to tortures so ingeniously cruel 
that they seemed rather the practices of a 
familiar of the ' Holy Inquisition,' than those 
of a valiant soldier, as Sir Walter tells us 
that Berreo really was." 

If Sir Walter Raleigh had but known of 
this river's vast extent, of its nimierous 
tributaries, its thirteen hundred miles of 
length, and the fierce currents that urged 
perpetual conflict with the sea, even his 
dauntless spirit might have shrunk from the 
undertaking to which he was then com- 
mitted. But he pushed on and on, armed 
by his ignorance, against whatever he might 
encounter, and so scantily equipped that 
after the reputed gold-fields had been found 
he had no utensils with which to dig up 
the precious metal or extract it from the 
rocks. Having found his way through the 
labyrinthine delta (though by means of such 
tedious voyaging that he was tempted to 
hang the native pilot on the charge of lead- 
ing him astray), he at last emerged into 
broad, grassy plains, dotted with forest 
clumps, that looked "as if they had been, by 
all the art and labor in the world, so made 
of purpose," and where the deer and other 
wild animals approached the river-banks to 
170 



THE EXPEDITION TO GUIANA 

graze, *' as if they had been used to the keep- 
er's call." 

Sir Walter extracted what of pleasure and 
of interest he might from the various scenes 
and events along the way; and that he was 
accurate and painstaking is shown by the 
book he published close upon his return to 
England, and which is entitled: The Dis- 
coverie of the large, rich, and beautiful Empire 
of Guiana; with a relation of the Great and 
Golden City of Manoa, which the Spaniards 
called El Dorado, performed in the year 159 Si 
by Sir Walter Raleigh, Knight. 

This accoiint of his adventures was de- 
nounced by his enemies as a fabrication, 
and the gold he found, it was declared, was 
obtained by him in Barbary and taken to 
Trinidad for the purpose of deceiving his 
countrymen! This was an untruth, for 
whatever Raleigh related was, so far as he 
could observe, an exact transcript from the 
book of nature and a report of actual oc- 
currences. He had far higher aims than 
the mere acquisition of gold, for this founder 
of England's colonial empire in America 
thought to colonize Guiana as he had hoped 
to colonize Roanoke and Virginia. He was 
looking for gold as an incidental aid to 
171 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

colonization, and as a gift to the Queen, who 
thereby might be led to pardon him fully, 
and promote further schemes which he had 
conceived. 

After four hundred miles or so had been 
traversed, and double the time consumed in 
doing it which they had reckoned, the com- 
pany began to get discouraged. "The cur- 
rent came against us every day," says Sir 
Walter, '' stronger than ever. But we ever- 
more commanded our pilots to promise an 
end the next day, and used it so long that 
we were driven to assure them from four 
reaches of the river to three, and so to two, 
and so to the next reach; but so long we 
labored that many days were spent, also 
our provisions, and no drink at all; and 
our men and ourselves were so wearied and 
scorched, and doubtful withal whether we 
should ever perform it or no; the heat con- 
stantly increasing." 

They were heartened at last by the capt- 
ure of an Indian canoe laden with cassava 
bread, which stayed them awhile, and by 
the sight of a few pinches of gold-dust which 
the chief carried in a calabash. This chief, 
or cacique, agreed to pilot the weary ad- 
venturers to the confluence of another great 
172 



THE EXPEDITION TO GUIANA 

river with the Orinoco, and on the fifteenth 
day they had the happiness of seeing the 
mountains of Guiana. 

At one place on the way they allayed the 
cravings of hunger with tortuga huevos (tur- 
tle eggs), which they found by thousands on 
a sand-bar, and pronounced "very whole- 
some meat, and restoring." The Indians 
were Arawacas, or Arawaks, belonging to the 
great family which furnished the aboriginal 
inhabitants of the West Indies. Their 
chief, the ''lord of that land," named To- 
parimaca, supplied the Englishmen with 
cassava bread, fish, turtle eggs, and palm 
wine, the beverage proving so agreeable that 
some of the captains became "reasonable 
pleasant withal," and were moved to forget 
their troubles in a carousal. 

The cacique was treated by Raleigh to a 
dissertation upon the manifold virtues of 
Queen Elizabeth — or, at least, so he reported 
to his royal patroness, and told that she had 
commanded her servants to make the ex- 
pedition for the purpose of delivering the 
Indians from Spanish oppression. " I dilated 
at large," he afterward boasted, "upon her 
Majesty's greatness, her justice, her charity 
to all oppressed nations, with as many of the 
173 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

rest of her beauties and virtues as either I 
could express or they conceive." Then he 
showed the venerable cacique a portrait of 
the Queen, at sight of which (the artful Sir 
Walter represented to her Majesty) he was 
so greatly overcome by her most ravishing 
charms that he nearly swooned away! And, 
moreover, though so susceptible to beauty, 
the cacique was so far advanced in years as 
to be thought a centenarian who, as he him- 
self poetically expressed it, was " daily called 
for by death." 

This old chieftain could give Sir Walter 
no positive information of Manoa, but he 
recalled a tradition of some invaders of the 
lowlands who had come from the country 
"where the sun slept," and in the war that 
followed many of his tribe had perished. 
They were called Epurimei, he said, and 
their great cacique, the Inca, wore the 
crimson burla which distinguished the "Son 
of the Sun" from his subjects. ^ He presented 
Raleigh with "great store" of provisions, 
and a "beast" called by him cachicdmo, or 
armadillo, which was "barred over with 
small plates, somewhat like to a rhinoceros, 
and with a white horn growing in its hinder 
parts as big as a great hunting-horn, which 
174 



THE EXPEDITION TO GUIANA 

they, the natives, use to wind [blow] in- 
stead of a trumpet." 

Sir Walter's account of the armadillo was 
not quite accurate, but his descriptions gen- 
erally may be relied on as coming near 
the truth, though quaintly expressed. After 
he had arrived home, many there were who 
could not bring themselves to believe his 
accounts of the salt-water oysters growing 
on trees; but they may be seen to-day, in 
the Gulf of Paria and on the shores of 
Trinidad, clinging to the roots of the man- 
groves. Here is his description, and it is 
in no whit exaggerated: "In the way be- 
tween were divers little brooks of fresh 
water, and one of salt, that had store of 
oisters upon the branches of the trees, 
which were very salt and well tasted. All 
their oisters grow upon those boughs and 
spraies [of the mangroves] and not on the 
ground." 

Only one man lost his life on this expedi- 
tion, with all its hardships, the exposure of 
its members to the tropical heat and rains, 
the insufficient supply of food, and scarcity 
of potable water. This man was a negro, 
*'a very proper young fellow," says Raleigh 
in his book, ''that, leaping out of the galley 
175 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

to swim in the river, was, all in our sights, 
taken and devoured with one of those 
largatos" [alligators]; for ''there were thou- 
sands of those uglie serpents'" in the upper 
waters of the Orinoco, making its navigation 
exceedingly dangerous. 

The dreary, uninteresting scenery of the 
lower Orinoco was enlivened by those strange 
people, the tree - dwelling Indians, whose 
frail aerial shelters were built aloft to avoid 
the rising floods. "In the winter season," 
wrote Raleigh, "they dwell thus upon the 
trees, where they have very artificial towns 
and villages; for between May and Septem- 
ber the river Orenoke riseth thirtie feet up- 
right; and for this cause they are forced to 
live in this manner." The adventurers ex- 
perienced the tremendous force of the Orino- 
co current on their downward trip, and its 
sudden rising apparently without cause or 
warning. "Our hearts were cold to behold 
the great rage and increase of Orenoko. . . . 
For the same night in which we ankered in 
the mouth of the river Capuri, where it 
falleth into the sea, there rose a mighty 
storm, and the river's mouth was at least a 
league broad, so as we ran before night close 
under the land, with our small boats, and 
176 



THE EXPEDITION TO GUIANA 

brought the galley as near as we could; but 
she had also to live as could be, and there 
wanted little of her sinking, and all those in 
her." 

At last the explorers found their progress 
barred by the rapids and waterfalls of the 
river Caroni, and here halted. This was the 
turning-point of their journey, and yet it 
appeared to the enraptured Raleigh as if the 
wonders of the region were just beginning to 
be revealed. ''When we ran to the tops of 
the first hills of the plains adjoining to the 
river," he wrote in his journal, ''we beheld 
that wonderful breach of waters which ran 
down Caroli [the Caroni]; . . . and there ap- 
peared some ten or twelve overfalls in sight, 
every one as high over the other as a church 
tower, which fell with that fury that the re- 
bound of waters made it seem as it had been 
all covered over with a great shower of rain ; 
and in some places we took it, at the first, 
for a smoke that had risen over some great 
town. ... I never saw a more beautiful coun- 
try, nor more lively prospects : hills so raised 
here and there over the valleys; the river 
winding into divers branches; the plains ad- 
joining all fair green grass, without bush or 
stubble; the ground of hard sand, easy to 
177 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

march on, either for horse or foot; the deer 
crossing on every path; the birds, towards 
evening, singing on every tree with a thousand 
several tunes; cranes and herons of white, 
crimson, and carnation, perched on the river's 
side; the air fresh, with a gentle easterly 
wind; and every stone that we stooped to 
take up promising either gold or silver by 
his complexion!" 

That the explorers had at last reached an 
earthly paradise was evident to their senses; 
that it abounded with gold also seemed 
evident; but, alas! though there were vast 
ledges of what the Spaniards termed madre 
de oro (mother of gold), the witless inves- 
tigators had brought no mining tools of 
any sort whatever! ''We had no means 
but with our daggers and our fingers to tear 
them out here and there [the specimens of 
ore which they took back to England]; and 
the veins lie a fathom or two deep in the 
rocks." Discovering a very great ledge 
of the ''gold-mother" near one of the rivers, 
Raleigh continues: "I found a cleft in the 
same, from whence, with daggers and the 
head of an axe, we got out some small 
quantity thereof. Of which kind of white 
stone, wherein gold is engendered, we saw 
178 



THE EXPEDITION TO GUIANA 

divers hills and rocks, in every part of Gui- 
ana wherein we travelled." 

This "ore of gold" was assayed in London 
by three different assay masters, as well as 
by the comptroller of the mint, and ''held 
after the rate of a hundred and twenty to 
two hundred and vsixty-nine pounds a ton." 
The worthy assayers must have possessed 
a ''Midas' touch," the sceptics said, to evoke 
from those small fragments such a quantity 
of gold in prospective, for the riches of that 
region, though vast in the aggregate, have 
not verified Raleigh's discoveries. His de- 
tractors classed his alleged finding of gold 
with his stories relating to the mysterious 
"Ewaiponoma," or headless people, whose 
mouths were said to be in the middle of their 
breasts and their eyes between their shoul- 
ders; and with the Amazons, those warlike 
women who have ever remained as myths, 
though mentioned by the first exploreis of 
South America. Sir Walter does not say that 
he saw them, or implicitly believed all that was 
told him respecting them, concluding: "For 
mine own part, I saw them not, but am re- 
solved that so many people did not all combine, 
or forethink, to make the report. . . . Whether 
it be true or not, the matter is not great." 

^3 I7Q 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

Raleigh and his party repeated the blun- 
ders committed by the Cabots, by Sir Hum- 
phrey Gilbert, Grenville, and Lane — in fact, 
all the English explorers before them : they 
did not remain long enough to ascertain any- 
thing of great value; they did not verify 
reports received from the natives; they did 
not seek to establish a colony. The expedi- 
tion may be said to have been made for 
naught, since no great result followed all this 
expense, labor, and privation. 

Imagine a man of sane mind seeking El 
Dorado — a city or country of gold — with no 
appliances for mining, even for excavating 
the soil or testing metals! Imagine him 
arriving within the confines of the golden 
country — as he conjectured — and then im- 
mediately turning about for home ! We can- 
not but agree with him perfectly when he 
says, in excuse for not attempting to pro- 
ceed farther: "Considering that to enter 
Guiana by small boats, to depart four or five 
hundred miles from my shipps, and to leave 
[behind] a [Spanish] garrison interested in 
the same enterprise, who also daily expected 
supplies out of Spaine, I should have savoured 
very much of the Asse!" The whole expe- 
dition had that "savour," in truth, and we 
i8o 



THE EXPEDITION TO GUIANA 

must confess that the asinine simile was not 
far-fetched. 

The return journey was performed with 
great rapidity, for the current was swift, 
though the winds were generally ahead. Re- 
ports of the humane treatment Raleigh had 
accorded the natives preceded him, and he 
was everywhere met along the river-banks 
by Indians, who brought him presents of 
"all such kinds of victual as the places 
yielded." *'At one town on the bank of a 
tributary stream," Raleigh says in his book, 
*'we found them all drunk as beggars, and 
the pots walking from one to another with- 
out rest. We that were weary and hot 
with marching were very glad of the plentie, 
though of their drink a small quantitie satis- 
fied us, it being very strong and heady. . . . 
After we had fed we drew ourselves back to 
our boats, upon the river, and there came 
to us all the lords of the country, bearing 
their delicate wine of pinas [pineapple], abun- 
dance of hens, and other provisions. . . . We 
understood by these chieftains that their lord, 
Carapana, was departed from Emeria, which 
was now in sight, and that he was fled to Cai- 
ramo, . . . and we thought it bootless to row 
so far, or to seek any further for this old fox." 
i8i 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

In the end he says : " The longer we tarried 
the worse it was [at the mouth of the river], 
and therefore I took Captain Gifford, Cap- 
tain Catilfield, and my cousin Grenville into 
my barge, and after it cleared up we put 
ourselves to God's keeping, and thrust out 
into the sea. . . . And so, being all very sober 
and melancholy, one faintly cheering an- 
other to show courage, it pleased God that 
the next day, about nine of the clock, we 
descried the island of Trinedado, and, steer- 
ing for the nearest part of it, we kept the 
shore till we came to Curiapan, where we 
foimd our shipps at anchor; than which 
there was never to us a more joyful sight." 



XIII 

TWO FAMOUS VICTORIES 
1596-1597 

SIR WALTER returned to England with- 
out great honors, either of conquest or 
discovery, which fact was as displeasing to 
the Queen as it was mortifying to him. 
Elizabeth had hoped for rich prizes, the loot 
of cities, and perchance some captive ships 
to add to her navy ; but nothing save prom- 
ises and flattery had Raleigh to lay at her 
feet. She averted her face from this favorite 
of former times, who had accomplished sc 
little after preparing so greatly. He had 
not even visited the plantations in Virginia, 
which were at one time as the apple of his 
eye, and which, he had proclaimed, it was 
his intention to take in on the homeward 
voyage. In very truth, he had not done 
anything he had promised to do, and on his 
return was in greater disfavor than ever. 
He saw that to win back the lost regard 
183 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

of a sovereign whose weakness was vanity, 
and whose besetting sin was covetousness, 
he must connect himself with some enterprise 
that should minister to both, by extending 
her fame among nations and filling her 
treasury with gold. The opportunity came 
within a year, but meanwhile he was in dis- 
grace. His hopes were dashed, his expecta- 
tions unrealized; but his high courage sup- 
ported him, and within a few months of his 
return he sent back his faithful follower, 
Captain Keymis, to explore the mines of 
which they had heard such glowing reports. 
Five months later Keymis returned with the 
discouraging information that the Spaniards 
had erected a fort near the mouth of the 
river Caroni, where they were in force suffi- 
cient to defeat any attempt to reach the 
mines. He came back empty-handed, but 
with important additions to Raleigh's rich 
store of knowledge concerning the country 
he desired to colonize for England, which 
was embodied in the book he wrote and 
issued the next year — his Discoverie of 
Guiana. 

Sir Walter could not truthfully claim that 
he had ** discovered" Guiana, since the Span- 
iards found the way thither many years be- 
184 



TWO FAMOUS VICTORIES 

fore his voyage was made; but he had 
certainly opened a route to a region until 
that time closed to English navigation. 
England and Spain were to wrangle over 
the question of priority many years after, 
and what Raleigh did, though it was little, 
gave the former an excuse for setting forth 
her claims to territory which, but for him, 
she never would have even a shadowy title 
to. But this is a subject aside from that we 
are considering, and must be ignored. We 
should take cognizance, however, of Sir 
Walter's great book, which was the first to 
be issued on that wonderful country, setting 
forth his adventures therein, and note that 
by means of it he re-established himself in 
general esteem and gained the credence of 
the public, even if his sovereign still con- 
tinued obdurate. 

By the royal commission under which 
Raleigh had sailed with his fleet, he had been 
empowered by the Queen "to do Us service 
in offending the King of Spain and his sub- 
jects in his dominions to your uttermost 
power." And, furthermore, whatever should 
result from that expedition, " as well by sea 
as by land, for the furtherance of this Our 
service, and enfeebling of Our enemies, the 
185 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

subjects and adherents of the King of Spain, 
you and all such as serve under you on this 
voyage shall be clearl}^ acquitted and dis- 
charged." That is, he would not be held re- 
sponsible for any international complications 
that might result from his endeavors to 
force a passage through the King of Spain's 
dominions, or the waters, such as the Car- 
ibbean Sea, which he claimed to control. 
With the ample powers for conquest, how- 
ever, granted him by this commission, 
Raleigh had only captured a small garrison 
at Trinidad; and with full authority for 
laying siege to and sacking any city of the 
West Indies or the Spanish Main, he had re- 
turned without having made a serious attempt 
upon any Spanish settlement whatever. 

But another opportunity was given him, 
as we have said, within a year of his return 
from Trinidad. It had become plainly ap- 
parent, even to the Queen, that King Philip 
of Spain was meditating another descent 
upon England's shores, and was gathering 
his ships together for another and perhaps 
more powerful armada than that which he 
had despatched in 1588. Instead of waiting 
for its advent, such captains as Drake and 
Hawkins recommended that the tactics of 
186 



TWO FAMOUS VICTORIES 

the former when he destroyed the ships of 
Cadiz be adopted. But both great and gal- 
lant sea-lions died before the plan was carried 
into effect — Hawkins off Porto Rico, in 
November, 1595, and Drake on the same 
voyage, off Porto Bello, in January, 1596. 
Elizabeth had other captains, though per- 
haps none so effective for such an enterprise, 
and the projected expedition was delayed. 
When finally afloat, it consisted of nearly one 
hundred English craft of all kinds, large and 
small, including ''Queen's ships" and trans- 
ports, and twenty-four Dutch vessels as an 
auxiliary squadron, the total force on board 
which was about sixteen thousand soldiers 
and sailors. 

The chief in command of this fleet was the 
Lord High Admiral Howard, of Effingham; 
but associated with him was the Earl of 
Essex, as generalissimo of the forces. The 
fleet was divided into four squadrons, the 
first of which was led by the Ark Royal, for- 
merly the famous Ark Ralegh, and com- 
manded by the Lord High Admiral ; the Earl 
of Essex led the second squadron; Lord 
Thomas Howard, vice-admiral of the com- 
bined fleet, led the third ; Sir Walter Raleigh, 
as rear-admiral, led the fourth in the War- 
187 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

Spite \ while the Dutch fleet comprised a 
fifth squadron, which brought up the rear, 
and was active only in gathering in the 
spoils of victory. 

The Queen had done her best to give every 
admiral in her navy a position commensu- 
rate with his rank, and the result was that 
with so many commanders there was in- 
describable confusion. When Cadiz was 
sighted there were no two commanders who 
agreed as to the proper mode of attack. 
The Lord High Admiral refused to attack 
with his ships until after the soldiers had 
been landed; the Earl of Essex attempted 
to land them, but the sea was so high that 
his boats were swamped, and fifteen lives 
were lost. At the same time the fire of the 
Cadiz batteries was concentrated upon him, 
and he knew not what to do; but Raleigh, 
who had been sent ahead to prevent the 
Spanish ships from escaping, saw the peril 
of his position and hastened to the rescue. 
Then, for once in their lives, these discredited 
favorites of Queen Elizabeth and erstwhile 
rivals were agreed: they both denoimced 
the Lord High Admiral's scheme as a failure. 
But who would go to the pompous old Ad- 
miral and tell him so? 
i88 



TWO FAMOUS VICTORIES 

''I will!" exclaimed Sir Walter. ''We 
should at once assault the ships in the inner 
harbor. See them there, penned up like 
sheep in a fold! 'Od zooks! but we could 
swiftly slaughter them all. I will away; 
and, meanwhile, await you here until I 
return." 

Suiting the action to the word, he sprang 
into a skiff and ordered his men to row to the 
flag-ship. Amid plunging shot from the 
shore batteries, he made his way among the 
assembling ships to the Ark Royal, on the 
deck of which he held a brief but stormy in- 
terview with the old Admiral. In the end he 
secured his assent to an immediate attack, 
and no sooner was it received than he leaped 
into the skiff again and dashed back to his 
ship. On the way he passed near the Due 
Repulse, on the deck of which was Essex, 
pacing nervously to and fro. 

''Entramosr (In we go) shouted Raleigh, 
hearing which joyful news the Earl cast his 
plumed hat into the sea, with a cry of delight, 
and gave orders for re-embarking the troops. 
Before this was accomplished the afternoon 
was well spent, and the assault was perforce 
put off till the morrow; but there were some 
so rash, including the excitable Essex, that 
189 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

they would have dashed in at once, through 
the darkness of night. 

Though the British were brave enough, 
sailors and officers, they were like a flock of 
sheep without a leader. There was no actual 
head — or, rather, the commanding force was 
hydra-headed — and naught but confusion re- 
sulted from the council of war which was 
held on board the Ark Royal that night. 
As Raleigh had been instrumental in pre- 
venting the fatal landing of the soldiers, and 
in changing the attack to one of direct as- 
sault upon the shipping, to him was given the 
honor of leading. But there were others 
desirous of that honor, and quite a quarrel 
developed between Raleigh and Lord Thomas 
Howard, who insisted upon a prior claim by 
reason of rank; and, absurd as it may ap- 
pear, on the morrow there were two com- 
manders thrusting themselves to the front, 
each in his flag-ship striving for precedency 
and giving orders to others. 

Sir Walter himself says of the affair : ' ' For 
mine own part, as I was willing to give honor 
to my Lord Thomas (having both precedency 
in the army, and being a gentleman whom I 
much honored) , so yet I was resolved to give 
and not take example for this service, holding 
190 



TWO FAMOUS VICTORIES 

mine own reputation dearest, and remember- 
ing my great duty to her Majesty. With the 
first peep of day, therefore, I weighed an- 
chor, and bore down upon the Spanish fleet, 
taking the start of all ours a good dis- 
tance." 

The Spanish fleet, which consisted of 
''fifty -nine tall ships," besides seventeen 
galleys beneath the guns of the forts and 
many great galleons of war, exceeding in size 
the largest in the English navy, lay huddled 
within the inner harbor of Cadiz. If the 
Spaniards had possessed a single oflicer of 
commanding ability, they might have sallied 
out and successfully attacked the disor- 
ganized squadrons that had so rashly sailed 
in to emulate the great exploit of Drake in 
that same harbor ten years before. But, 
as then, they had no men qualified to com- 
mand in an exigency ; as then, their ships were 
crowded together in a mass, relying for pro- 
tection, not upon their own armaments, but 
upon the guns of batteries on shore. The 
result was the same as in 1587, and as it was 
more than three hundred years later, at 
Manila and at Santiago: infinite harm came 
to the Spaniards, whose ships were crushed 
by shot, sunk, destroyed by flames, without 
191 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

inflicting corresponding injuries upon their 
opponents. 

Straight at the centre of the imprisoned 
fleet aimed Raleigh, and he could not soon 
enough get into close quarters; for he had a 
score to settle with two of the mightiest 
antagonists in front of him — the enormous 
galleons St. Philip and St. Andrew, as they 
had been foremost in the Azores fight of five 
years before, when his cousin Grenville was 
killed. His artillery fire was deadly, and 
the galleons received the brunt of it; but he 
was anxious to board them both, and for 
this purpose lay up close against them for 
two hours, sending great shot into their 
sides and sweeping their decks with the iron 
hail. Perhaps no better account of the great 
battle could be given than that written by 
himself, for, as we know, he was as good 
with the pen as with the sword. We will 
begin with the approach of the ships to close 
quarters, after an artillery duel in which every 
commander sought to participate: 

''Now after we had beaten, as two butts 
one upon another, almost three hours (as- 
suring your honor that the volleys of cannon 
and culverin came as thick as if it had been 
a skirmish of musketeers), and finding my- 
192 



TWO FAMOUS VICTORIES 

self in danger to be sunk at the place, I went 
to my Lord General in my skiff, to desire 
him that he would enforce the promised fly- 
boats to come up, that I might board; for 
as I rid, I could not endure so great a battery 
any long time. . . . 

''While I was speaking with the Earl, the 
Marshal, who thought it some touch to his 
esteemed valor to ride behind me so many 
hours, got up ahead of my ship; which my 
Lord Thomas perceiving headed him again, 
myself being but a quarter of an hour absent. 
At my return, finding myself from being the 
first to be but the third, I presently let slip 
anchor, and thrust in between my Lord 
Thomas and the Marshal, and went up further 
ahead than all of them before, and thrust 
myself athwart the channel, so as I was sure 
none would outstart me again for that day! 
My Lord General Essex, thinking his ship's 
sides stronger than the rest, thrust the 
Dreadnought aside and came next my ship, 
the Warspite, on the left hand, ahead of all 
that rank but my Lord Thomas. The 
Marshal, while we had no leisure to look be- 
hind us, secretly fastened a rope on my ship's 
side toward him, to draw himself up equally 
with me ; but some of my company advertis- 
ing me thereof, I caused it to be cut off, and 
so he fell back into his place ; whom I guarded, 
all but his very prow, from the enemy. 
193 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

"Now if it please you to remember, that 
having no hope of my fly-boats to board 
[small boats to carry his boarders], and that 
the Earl and my Lord Thomas promised to 
second me, I laid out a warp by the side of 
the Philipy to shake hands with her (for with 
the wind we could not get aboard), which, 
when she and the rest perceived, finding also 
that the Repulse began to do the like, and the 
Rear Admiral also, they all let slip and came 
aground, tumbling into the sea heaps of 
soldiers, so thick as if coals had been poured 
out of a sack, some drowned and some stick- 
ing in the mud. 

''The Philip and the St. Thomas burnt 
themselves; the St. Matthew and the St. 
Andrew were recovered by our boats, ere 
they could get out to fire them. The spec- 
tacle was very lamentable on their side, for 
many drowned themselves, many, half- 
burnt, leaped into the water; very many 
hanging by the ropes' ends by the ship's 
sides, under water even to their lips ; many, 
swimming with grievous wounds, stricken 
under water and put out of their pains; and 
withal so huge a fire, and such tearing of 
ordnance in the great Philip, and the rest, 
when the fire came to them, as, if any man 
had desired to see Hell itself, it was there most 
lively figured. Ourselves spared the lives 
of all, after the victory; but the Flemings, 
194 



TWO FAMOUS VICTORIES 

who did little or nothing in the fight, used 
merciless slaughter, until they were, by my- 
self, and afterward by my Lord Admiral, 
beaten off." 

The fleet having been destroyed and the 
batteries silenced, the city was taken by 
soldiers under the command of Essex, to 
whose valor and skill Raleigh bore willing 
testimony in a letter to Cecil. He himself 
was prevented by a severe wound from par- 
ticipating in the assault, but insisted upon 
being carried ashore in a litter, and saw much 
of the fighting. He also shared in the rich 
spoils, at the sacking of the city, his portion 
of which was estimated at two thousand 
pounds sterling. The city was systematically 
sacked, and the spoils were vast; but the 
Queen's servants, both of high and low de- 
gree, having had forewarning of her cupidity 
at other times, secreted the bulk of it so 
successfully that Elizabeth ''was indignant, 
first, that the spoil was not greater; and, 
secondly, that what there was seemed likely 
to be, in large measure, absorbed by the 
claims, or the foresight, of those who had 
taken it." 

A joyous welcome awaited the victors 
when, late in the summer of that year, their 
I9S 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

ships sailed back to port. "The news of a 
victory so brilliant excited great enthusiasm 
everywhere in England — except at Court. 
The people were delighted that the King of 
Spain had suffered such a defeat as never 
before had befallen him at home. In the 
streets the victors were met with transports 
of applause and joy. But at Court they met 
clouded looks and haggling discussions about 
the amount of their prize-money. This de- 
grading and petty avarice, and the conse- 
quent disregard of the claims of those who 
had so nobly served her, seems to have grown 
with Elizabeth's advancing years, and the 
power it had now attained over her better 
qualities would almost pass credibility, were 
not the proofs numerous, cogent, and cir- 
cumstantial." 

Raleigh and Essex were the people's he- 
roes, and such was the revulsion of feeling 
caused by their bravery that they were every- 
where hailed with tumultuous applause. 
They had been told of Sir Walter's defiance 
of the galleys and the forts, as, stand- 
ing on the upper deck of the Warspite, he 
answered every shot from their guns with 
a contemptuous blare of his silver trumpet, 
sweeping onward steadily toward the ene- 
196 



TWO FAMOUS VICTORIES 

mies' galleons, with which he grappled in a 
battle to the death. They had been told, 
also, of the hot striving for the front, when 
every commander, with more zeal than dis- 
cretion, tried to be the first at the Spaniards, 
and foremost to receive the deadly fire from 
the galleons' towering walls. The change in 
opinion respecting Sir Walter is well ex- 
pressed in a letter to Lord Burghley from 
one of Raleigh's former enemies: "In my 
judgment," he wrote, "did no man better, 
and his artillery was of most effect. I never 
knew the gentleman till this time, and I am 
sorry for it, for there are in him excellent 
things besides his valor; and the observa- 
tion he hath in this voyage used with my 
Lord Essex hath made me love him." 

Months elapsed, however, before Raleigh 
was allowed at court in his wonted capacity 
as Elizabeth's trusted adviser. He passed 
the winter of 1596-97 in strengthening the 
coast defences and putting the fleets in order 
for another voyage; but in May, 1597, as 
we gather from a gossipy letter of that time, 
he was daily at court, "and a hope is had 
that he shall be admitted to the execution 
of his office as Captain of the Guard before 
he goes to sea." 

197 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

This reference to another expedition leads 
us up to the second appearance of Sir Walter 
as rear-admiral, and to the second victory 
which he was to gain for English ships and 
sailors. With his accustomed foresight, 
Raleigh had predicted that King Philip, 
though humiliated, was not crushed, and 
would certainly essay once again an invasion 
of England. "How the Spanish King can 
gather such an army and fleet together in 
so short a time, considering his late losses, 
I conceive not," he declares, in his famous 
Opinion Upon the Spanish Alarum; yet he 
urges the government to ** prepare for the 
worst," and sets an example of activity that 
is infectious. He had the country with him 
then, and, except for the Queen's parsimony, 
which constantly hindered his progress, no 
great obstacles were placed in his way. He 
was correct in his main conjecture, for the 
King of Spain, though his finest seaport 
had been laid in ruins, its forts and castles 
demolished, and the mightiest of his war- 
ships destroyed, set himself once again to 
the assembling of an "invincible armada." 
Crippled in resources as he was, and fully 
aware that with the fall of Cadiz the prestige 
of Spain had begun to decline. King Philip 
198 



TWO FAMOUS VICTORIES 

yet managed to collect another formidable 
fleet by midsummer of 1597. 

Information reached Raleigh, through his 
secret agents, that Philip's new armada had 
begun to collect, as early as November, 
1596, at Ferrol, on the coast of Coruiia; but 
the English knew that no invasion of their 
shores would be made in the winter season, 
owing to the fierce gales that swept the seas, 
and aimed merely to have their fleet ready 
to meet the Spaniards in the following sum- 
mer. It put to sea, in fact, about the middle 
of July, and consisted of seventeen ships of 
war, besides numerous transports and pin- 
naces. The Earl of Essex was admiral-in- 
chief, Lord Thomas Howard vice-admiral, 
and Sir Walter Raleigh rear-admiral, while 
the five thousand soldiers on board the ships, 
though nominally commanded by Lord 
Marshal Vere, were actually at the orders of 
the Queen's latest favorite, young Lord 
Mountjoy. The fleet was strong in ships 
and men, but weak from the very causes that 
operated against the former one: a multi- 
plicity of officials, whom the Queen felt com- 
pelled to conciliate with important com- 
mands. 

The valiant though fantastic Essex was 
199 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

supreme commander, however, and allowed 
no one to dispute his authority. He was 
instructed to seek and attack the fleet as- 
sembled, or assembling, at Ferrol; but a 
series of gales reduced the efficiency of his 
squadron so greatly that he was afraid to 
attempt it, and chose the other alternative of 
searching for and overhauling the expected 
treasure-fleet of that year, which was sup- 
posed to be large and richly laden. As it 
usually touched in at some one of the Azores, 
whence it proceeded under convoy to Spain, 
Essex appointed a rendezvous at the island 
of Flores, off which, about the middle of 
September, he and Raleigh met, and dined 
together on board the flag-ship, when they 
decided upon future operations. 

Essex set off in advance, leaving Raleigh 
to follow, after watering his ships ; but when 
the latter arrived at Fayal no other vessels 
than those of his own squadron were in sight. 
He waited four days, in great impatience, 
and then, as it had been the Admiral's in- 
tention to make an attack on Fayal, he took 
it upon himself to do so single-handed, and 
landed a strong force for the purpose. They 
were met by a heavy fire, when Sir Walter, 
who had gone ashore without his armor, 
200 



TWO FAMOUS VICTORIES 

himself led a dashing charge upon the in- 
trenchments, and drove the Spaniards to the 
city, five miles away. A scattering fire was 
kept up by the enemy all along the route, 
and Raleigh received several bullets through 
his clothes, but escaped unscathed, and on 
the morrow returned to welcome his com- 
mander at the roadstead. Then there was a 
fierce quarrel between the two hot-headed 
admirals, for Essex considered his preroga- 
tives invaded, and was inclined to punish 
his subordinate for ''breach of order and 
articles," which carried with it the death 
penalty. Raleigh finally convinced the irate 
Earl that this penalty did not apply to a 
"principal commander," which he undoubt- 
edly was; but, in the words of one who was 
there, " if my Lord, who by nature was tim- 
orous and flexible, had not feared how it 
would have been taken in England, I think 
Sir Walter had smarted for it!" 

A truce was concluded, however; for this 
was no time for dissensions, when the seas 
were alive with prospective prizes, and the 
squadrons scattered in search of the treasure- 
fleet, which was daily expected at the is- 
lands. Raleigh chased a richly laden East- 
Indiaman ashore, and had the chagrin to see 

20I 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

its valuable cargo of spices go up in smoke, 
scenting the coast for miles around with 
fragrant gales. Three valuable prizes were 
captured, but the plate -fleet slipped into 
Terceira unharmed, where its vast treasure 
was taken ashore and buried, protected by 
the guns of the forts. The three prizes 
served to placate the Queen ; but Essex could 
not forget that the scanty honors of that 
voyage were mainly won by his rival, who 
had not only captured Fayal, but had sailed 
with the two great galleons he had taken at 
Cadiz included in his squadron. 



XIV 

A PERIOD OF TURMOILS 
1597-1602 

ALTHOUGH Sir Walter had been de- 
L barred from Elizabeth's court during 
several years, he had been, as we have seen, 
employed by the Queen in various capacities, 
as soldier, naval officer, and general man- 
of-all-work, when anything urgent was de- 
manded which no other person could perform. 
On his return from the ''islands voyage," as 
the expedition to the x\zores was termed, he 
seems to have been once more admitted to 
the confidence of his sovereign. He no longer 
shared her affections, however, these having 
been reconcentrated upon the hapless Essex, 
whose presumption on this account brought 
about his downfall and death. So far, in 
fact, he ventured, on one notable occasion, 
that the angered Queen dismissed him from 
her presence with a stinging box on the ear, 
and in his anger he accused her openly of 
203 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

being more anxious to please ''that knave 
Raleigh" than himself. 

Sir Walter was now between forty and 
fifty years of age, with "a leg lame and de- 
formed" from the wound received at Cadiz, 
and yet he took as great pride in his personal 
appearance as ever. His armor was the 
costliest and most adorned with jewels of 
any worn at court, and his bearing before 
the Queen was as gallant as that of Essex 
himself. 

It was his sage counsel that Elizabeth now 
valued, and not his attractions of face or 
manner ; yet an incident that occurred some- 
time in the year following his return from 
the Azores would seem to belie any claim 
made for him of wisdom or good judgment. 
Taking advantage, one day, of the Earl's 
temporary banishment from the Queen's 
presence, Sir Walter arranged to make a dis- 
play before her of himself and a gallant 
company of knights, all splendidly decked 
out in orange-colored feathers. But Essex 
had heard of his intention, and in order to 
divest the affair of the eclat with which his 
rival had expected to be greeted, he quickly 
organized another band of orange-feathered 
gallants far more numerous than Raleigh's, 
204 



A PERIOD OF TURMOILS 

and at their head, in orange-colored armor, en- 
tered the tilt-yard and galloped around it, to 
the great enjoyment of his royal mistress 
and the total discomfiture of his opponent. 

Soon after this so-called '' feather triumph " 
of one feather-brained courtier over another, 
Essex received the fatal appointment as 
Governor of Ireland, which realized for him 
a great ambition but proved his undoing. 
At one time, having listened to his vaporings 
about what he would do to the Irish rebels, 
the veteran Cecil, Elizabeth's long-trusted 
Secretary of State, held out a psalm-book to 
Essex, silently pointing to the verse, *'Men 
of blood shall not live out half their days," 
a prophetic warning that should have been 
heeded by both the Earl and Sir Walter. 
Ireland had been "the sepulchre of his 
father," as some one remarked, and was 
destined to be "the grave of his own fort- 
unes," yet the rash young Earl persisted 
in going there as governor. " I have beaten 
Raleigh and Knollys in the council," he 
boasted, ''and I will beat Tir Owen [the rebel] 
in the field ; for nothing worthy her Majesty's 
honor has yet been achieved." 

Not many months elapsed before there 
was a sudden panic in England, for it was 
205 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

privately reported to the Queen that, tak- 
ing advantage of his possession of the 
"largest army that Ireland had ever seen," 
the Earl of Essex meditated a descent upon 
the throne. Nothing could be more absurd ; 
but when he unexpectedly appeared at court 
sometime later, where he burst into the 
Queen's private apartments unannoimced 
and without ceremony, he was at once ar- 
rested and sent to the Tower. 

There is something strange about the be- 
havior of Essex at this time, which might 
lead to the belief that he had become insane 
— as perhaps he had, through excess of am- 
bition and jealous brooding over the acts of 
his rivals Cecil and Raleigh. He was kept 
in ''honorable captivity" for some months, 
and released in August, on condition that 
he should hold no public office and should 
continue a prisoner in his own house at the 
Queen's pleasure. But his proud and jealous 
nature could not brook the restraint placed 
upon him, as he believed, by his deadly 
enemies, or those whom he considered as 
such. His popularity with the people had 
been proved during his long confinement, 
and, mistakenly relying upon their uncertain 
support, he cast himself upon their mercy 
206 



A PERIOD OF TURMOILS 

when he led his band of deluded men through 
London, with the intent, as he said, of ap- 
pearing before the Queen to plead his cause 
in person. But he was immediately pro- 
claimed a traitor, and, finding the streets 
defended by barriers, behind which were con- 
stantly increasing forces of the Queen's men, 
he began a retreat to Essex House, where he 
remained. There, at ten o'clock of a gloomy 
night, he was arrested and conveyed to the 
Tower, whence he was to issue only to meet 
his final doom. 

An endeavor had been made to draw Sir 
Walter Raleigh within the net that had been 
spread for the Earl's enemies, and he was 
shot at several times, by Sir Christopher 
Blount, on returning from a conference with 
Sir Fernando Gorges; but he emerged un- 
harmed from the emeute, though compelled 
to attend various scenes of danger in his 
capacity of captain of the Queen's Guard. 
He also directed the siege of Essex House, 
which its owner had barricaded; he accom- 
panied the prisoner to the Tower, and, as 
commander of the Queen's Guard, was forced 
to be present at the ensuing trial and execu- 
tion. Though Sir Walter attended both 
trial and the scene of execution in his official 
207 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

capacity, there were not wanting certain 
mean-spirited persons who accused him of 
being there in order to gloat over the mis- 
fortunes of his defeated rival. He was 
also accused of having betrayed the Earl's 
intentions to the government, after the inter- 
vie v/ with Gorges ; but as to that, the foolish 
actions of Essex were known to all, and 
needed no "betrayer," for, indeed, he was 
his own worst enemy. 

Whether or not the Earl of Essex was be- 
trayed by Raleigh, the former had assured 
himself of a posthumous revenge, for during 
a long correspondence with King James of 
Scotland, the aspirant for the crown of Eng- 
land upon Queen Elizabeth's demise, he had 
"instilled into his mind that subtle poison 
which was never eradicated, and was the 
first to formulate the monstrous charge on 
which he was tried and condemned, and for 
which at last he died." When on his de- 
fence, Essex had declared that "Cobham, 
Cecil, and Raleigh's violence hath driven 
me to the necessary defence of my life,^as 
exemplified in his attempt to burst into the 
Queen's presence. "And let them," he said, 
" freely enjoy their life ; for my part, death is 
more welcome to me than life." 
208 



A PERIOD OF TURMOILS 

He proved his sincerity by meeting his 
fate with composure, and when, after his 
sentence of death was pronounced, the edge 
of the axe was turned toward him, he said : 
"This body might have done the Queen 
better service, if it had so pleased her; I 
shall be glad if it may be useful to her in any 
way." But Elizabeth recalled that he had 
also said, when the recipient of her favor, 
that she was *'as crooked in disposition as 
in her carcase," which remark, with others 
she may have remembered, probably steeled 
her to sign the death-warrant of one whom 
she had spoiled by her petting and ruined by 
her indulgence. 

No one doubts that the Queen was deeply 
affected by the death of her superlative 
favorite, nor that, as the few years remaining 
to her passed by, she was more and more 
remorseful over the deed committed with her 
sanction. From that time, indeed, she visi- 
bly declined, mentally and physically, almost 
from the hour of his death becoming subject 
to periods of irritability and depression, from 
which no efforts on the part of her atten- 
dants could divert her. She was rarely 
cheerful after that, and never with a heart 
free from the pangs of remorse. Ever be- 
209 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

fore her, by night and by day, she must have 
seen the headless corpse of him who had been 
so much to her that none could fill the void 
caused by his death. 

Of Raleigh, it was asserted that if he had 
used his mediation in behalf of Essex, while 
the Queen's mind was wavering in an ago- 
nized reluctance to signing the death-war- 
rant, he might have saved his former rival 
from the extreme penalty of his deeds. But 
he did not; though in consideration of a 
bribe, said to have amounted to ten thousand 
pounds, he interceded successfully for Bayn- 
ham and Littleton, two of the Earl's co-con- 
spirators. His remorse, if indeed he were 
thus afflicted, found surcease in extraor- 
dinary activities, and he made himself so 
useful, even indispensable, to the Queen 
that, instead of holding him in any measure 
accountable for, or implicated in, the proj- 
ects of Essex which resulted in his death, she 
gave him her confidence and patronage. 

The Earl of Essex was beheaded on Febru- 
ary 25, 1 60 1. In the month of September 
preceding, Elizabeth had conferred upon Sir 
Walter the governorship of Jersey, and to his 
island realm he had turned hopefully, in the 
expectation of finding there much -needed 
210 



A PERIOD OF TURMOILS 

rest and comfort. His noble wife and son 
accompanied him to the vessel that he took 
on this first voyage to Jersey, but neither 
Lady Raleigh nor ''little Wat" went with 
him farther then, though the latter, when 
grown to be a sturdy young man, was to take 
a longer voyage with his father — that to 
Guiana, which was to prove fatal to both. 

Rest was denied Sir Walter in the island 
he was given to govern, as well as elsewhere, 
for he found much to do— forts to build, trade 
to establish with the colonies, and many 
measures to promote for the benefit of his 
people, which earned for him their lasting 
gratitude. Then he hastened back to Corn- 
wall, where, as Lord Warden of the Stan- 
neries, he was instrumental in doubling the 
wages of the miners, the poverty of whom 
may be inferred from the fact that even then 
they received but four shillings a week. In a 
defence of his course in Cornwall, set forth 
before Parliament, when it was proposed to 
abolish his monopoly of the mining of tin, 
Raleigh boasted of this in the following 
words: ''Now I will tell you that before 
the granting of my patent, whatever the 
price of tin, the poor workman never had 
but two shillings a week, finding himself. 

IS 211 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

But since my patent, whosoever will work — 
be tin at what price soever — they have four 
shillings a week, truly paid." And such was 
the degradation of those poor miners that 
they felt very grateful to the rich Sir Walter 
Raleigh for allowing them to toil in his deep, 
dark mines at a wage of one dollar a week! 

Sir Walter Raleigh's ancestors had filled 
seats in Parliament, in the House of Com- 
mons, for generations, and as a knight of the 
shire of Devon he had been returned in 1585. 
His greatest activity there is noticed between 
the years 1597 and 1602, when he took part 
in many a debate, notably on the abolish- 
ment of monopolies — in which he himself 
was vitally concerned, with his privileges of 
wines, of the tin-mines, etc. — and on the 
proposition to enact laws against religious 
sects not in accordance with the established 
church. 

The "Brownists," for example, had been 
declared recalcitrant and deserving of ban- 
ishment, but Sir Walter spoke in their fa- 
vor, as follows : ' ' In my conceit, the Brown- 
ists are worthy to be voted out of a common- 
wealth. But what danger may grow to 
ourselves, if this law passes, were fit to be 
considered. It is to be feared that men not 
212 



A PERIOD OF TURMOILS 

guilty will be included in it. The law is hard 
that taketh life, or sendeth into banishment, 
where men's intentions shall be judged by a 
jury; and they shall be judges what another 
man meant. But the law that is against a 
fact is just. Punish the fact as severely as 
you will. And again, if two or three thou- 
sand Brownists meet at the sea-side, at whose 
charge shall they be transported ? Or whith- 
er w^ll you send them? I am sorry for it, 
but I am afraid there are nearly twenty 
thousand of them in England. When they 
are gone, who shall maintain their wives and 
children?" 

His wisdom was manifest, also, in many 
other speeches, as in his remarks on the 
compulsory sowing of certain crops, to the 
exclusion of others more to the profit of the 
agriculturist. ''For my part," he said, "I 
do not like this constraining of men to use 
their grounds at our wills. Rather let every 
man use his ground to that which it is most 
fit for, and therein use his own discretion." 

In an argument on free trade in grains, he 
declared himself against monopolies of all 
sorts, and for open ports. ''I think," he 
says, '' the best course is to set corn at liberty, 
and leave every man free ; which is the desire 

213 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

of every true Englishman." But when it 
was proposed to place tin on the free list — 
at least so far as his monopoly of working the 
mines was concerned — he saw at once certain 
insuperable objections to such a course. 
Free corn was very desirable, but free tin 
would bring about an invasion of the miners' 
rights which could not be tolerated ! In point 
of fact, while Sir Walter could sometimes soar 
to the heights of statesmanship, in the mat- 
ter of self-service he was ever the politician ! 
In the midst of his multifarious occupa- 
tions, Raleigh still found time for the en- 
joyment of literature, as a producer, and as 
a patron of others. He assembled about 
him a number of men interested in the antiq- 
uities of the country, and began, sometime 
in the last ten years of Elizabeth's reign, 
that study of history which stood him in 
such great advantage in his famous book, 
written while a prisoner in the Tower of 
London. Nearly all the authors who made 
the Elizabethan era famous were either his 
friends or acquaintances, and he has the 
credit of founding the celebrated Mermaid 
Club, which contained such great names as 
Shakespeare, Jonson, Fletcher, Beaumont, 
Cotton, and other lesser luminaries. 
214 



A PERIOD OF TURMOILS 

It is a curious fact that within the span of 
Raleigh's Hfe Shakespeare's was contained, 
for he was born a few years later than Sir 
Walter (1564), and died two years previous 
to his execution. As for ** Rare Ben Jonson " 
(to whose verbal combats with Shakespeare 
Raleigh must often have listened with 
amusement and profit), being twenty-one 
years the junior of Sir Walter, and nine 
younger than the immortal playwright, 
little is recorded of his connection with the 
club. He there formed his opinion of its 
founder, however, and is said to have re- 
marked, with his usual acumen, that Sir 
Walter was more vain than forceful. 

It must be confessed that Raleigh, through 
long acquaintance with vice in its most at- 
tractive forms, as displayed at court, where 
it was scarcely masked for sake of respect- 
ability, had grown accustomed to its presence 
and tolerant of its existence. He even ex- 
cused, or glossed it over in his friends, and 
by the exercise of a still broader tolerance 
became self -blinded to their grave defects. 
To this failing we may attribute his contin- 
uance of an intimacy with the notorious Lord 
Cobham, who, the year that Elizabeth died, 
dragged him within the shadow of the scaffold. 

215 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

During all the years that intervened be- 
tween his return from the Azores and the 
accession of King James, or from 1597 to 
1603, Raleigh kept a strict watch upon 
England's enemies, the Spaniards. Through 
his secret agents he obtained such informa- 
tion that he was enabled to inform the 
government of a projected invasion of Ire- 
land, which was thus defeated before it was 
accomplished and another grievance added 
to the account held against him by the King 
of Spain. He did not confine his efforts to 
checkmating the schemes of the enemy, 
but maintained squadrons of privateers in 
commission for driving Spanish commerce 
from the seas. In this enterprise Cecil and 
Cobham were jointly concerned with him, 
though the Queen may not have been 
cognizant of all that 'took place on the ocean 
at that time. Indeied, her interest in all 
earthly affairs was waning rapidly, for soon 
after she had attained her seventieth year, 
or in the latter part of 1602, Elizabeth virt- 
ually withdrew from active participation in 
affairs of state and business. She more fre- 
quently attended divine service, and listened 
more attentively to the reading of prayers 
than ever before, spending the interim chiefly 
216 



A PERIOD OF TURMOILS 

in the self -absorption of her thoughts. That 
these were sad, almost unbearable, and that 
her state was intolerably lonely, was pain- 
fully apparent to her attendants, whose ef- 
forts to amuse or distract her were in vain. 
As for her courtiers, most of them thought 
solely of themselves, in the last months of 
their sovereign's existence, and were, almost 
without exception, in secret communication 
with the coming king. The Earl of Essex 
had been one of the first thus to forestall 
events by trying to prepare for them, and 
doubtless his correspondence with King 
James (in which he failed not to warn him 
of Raleigh's influence as something inimical 
to his succession) had incensed the Queen. 
She could never allude to this indiscretion 
without great irritation, for the question of 
the succession, presaging as it did her own 
death as necessary for its accomplishment, 
was, as she often remarked, "like pinning up 
her winding-sheet before her face." When, 
therefore, she became informed that many 
of her courtiers, though deeply indebted to 
her for favors, were already building upon 
her grave — as it were — she sank into gloom 
and despondency. "Ah, me!" she exclaimed, 
"they have yoked my neck. I have none 
217 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

in whom I may trust. My estate is turned 
upside down!" 

She no longer had the venerable Cecil to 
advise her, for he had died in 1598. In his 
place was his son Robert, who, though her 
most trusted confidant and counsellor, was at 
the same time deepest in the intrigue through 
which King James was to benefit by her 
death. He had early begun a correspond- 
ence which sought, on his part, to elevate 
himself in the estimation of the King, and 
depreciate others who might stand in his 
way — notably Sir Walter Raleigh, as one who 
by his exceptional talents would be likely 
to attract royal attention. This, however, 
was a superfluous labor, it seems, since 
James had already formed an opinion ad- 
verse to Sir Walter, from letters written by 
Essex and from his own activity against the 
Spaniards. He viewed him as a reckless 
soldier whose aspirations might lead him to 
the throne itself if they were not checked. 
But Raleigh, though cognizant of the King's 
aversion, did not, like Cecil and others, seek 
to conduct a clandestine correspondence 
with the Scottish court, in an endeavor to 
gain the King's favor, while his beloved 
sovereign was still living. 
218 



A PERIOD OF TURMOILS 

The most reprehensible of the Queen's 
courtiers in this respect was Cecil, whose 
sycophantic labors for King James procured 
for him the sobriquet of "Little Beagle," 
though "badger" or "hyena" would have 
been more appropriate, from his proclivity 
for digging into plots and mysteries, which 
could only be come at by burrowing under- 
ground, or in the graves of ruined reputa- 
tions. He was also known to his familiar 
contemporaries as "Robert the Devil," from 
his sly and insinuating methods, and "his 
crooked body, upon which he carried a 
head-piece of much content." He was, 
nevertheless, trusted by the Queen to the 
very last, though, it is related, he once 
came near arousing suspicions that would 
have insured his prompt discharge from 
office, dependent upon him as she was for 
advice. It was on one of her last rides into 
the country. A messenger met the coach, 
as it was crossing Blackheath, with a packet 
from Scotland. She desired him to deliver 
it to her, but Cecil, who was at her side, 
first secured it, and, having broken the seals, 
declared that it contained nothing but old 
and musty parchments, "which it would 
trouble her Highness to endure." It should 
219 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

first be purified, he assured her, before being 
admitted to her inspection; and the broken- 
spirited Queen assented, thus reheving Cecil 
from a most embarrassing position, for the 
packet was from King James, and contained 
incriminating letters. 

"Robert the Devil " took good care that the 
one he most feared should not have too fre- 
quent or confidential interviews with Eliza- 
beth in the closing days of her reign, and 
was present at the last of which we have an 
account, about three months before her 
fatal seizure. She then implored Sir Walter 
to advise her respecting the treatment of 
certain Irish rebels whose properties had 
become forfeit through their disloyal acts, 
and the former favorite was gratified to ob- 
serve that she instructed her secretary to 
act in accordance with his suggestions. 



XV 

THE GREAT CONSPIRACY 
1603 

THE tidings of Elizabeth's demise reached 
Sir Walter Raleigh in the west of Eng- 
land, whither his official duties had called 
him. At the same time he received an order 
from Cecil to remain at his post, for the late 
Queen's secretary feared, with good reason, 
that he w^ould hasten to join the throng of 
courtiers already on the way to meet King 
James as he journeyed southward. Perhaps 
he would have done well if he had remained 
where duty found him, for he certainly 
gained nothing by appearing before the royal 
boor from Scotland, whose first greeting is 
said to have been in the form of a clumsy 
pun : * ' On my soul, I've heard rawly of thee !" 
This greeting was an affront as well, for 
it implied that James ignored, even if he 
had known of Raleigh's great services to the 
state, his wit, his learning, his high qualities 
221 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

of manhood, which far transcended those of 
the King himself. This may have been the 
real secret of the King's antipathy, for he 
could scarce tolerate one who possessed the 
substantial erudition, gained from toil and 
experience, of w^hich his own acquirements 
were but superficial reflections. The King's 
aspect, too, was repellent, and it may have 
been that Sir Walter, long-time courtier 
though he was, allowed himself a little scorn 
of this uncouth representative of royalty; 
for w^ho could conceal his contempt of one 
whose very presence was the antithesis of 
royal comportment: who wabbled awkward- 
ly about when he w^alked, like a sailor newly 
landed ; whose eyes rolled around, but never 
rested upon, the person he addressed ; whose 
tongue was so thick and whose ''burr" was 
so pronounced that his speech was scarce 
understandable ? 

Such was ''the wisest fool in Christendom" 
as he appeared to the most accomplished 
courtier in England. This was the man 
whom the Queen had in her mind when — 
perhaps accused by conscience of the crime 
she had committed in executing his mother 
— she had exclaimed: "My seat hath been 
the seat of kings ! Trouble me no more. He 

222 



THE GREAT CONSPIRACY 

who comes after me must be a king. I will 
have none but our cousin of Scotland. . . . 
And this was the king! 

King James bore no good will toward 
Raleigh, as was apparent in their first mter- 
view and that he had already decided to 
despoil him of his various offices was soon 
made manifest, for another was appointed 
captain of the guard, his monopolistic privi- 
leges were taken away, and finally he was 
deposed as governor of Jersey. As a leader 
of the war-party, also. Sir Walter had m- 
curred the displeasure of the King, who was 
disposed to peace at any cost, and who 
"could never see a sword without a shiver 
down his spine." Now, Sir Walter prided 
himself upon the very qualifications which 
the cowardly James held in abhorrence His 
valor was as unquestioned as that of the 
lamented Essex, for whose death, in some 
manner, the King held Raleigh to be respon- 
sible—or at least as contributory toward it. 
He had written for and now rashly presented 
to King James a " Discourse Touching a War 
with Spain," upon which he had plumed 
himself for a lofty flight, when the offended 
monarch, at one fell blow, brought him head- 
long to the ground. 

223 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

"I want no war with Spain," he vehe- 
mently asserted. ''Moreover, had I not 
been invited to the throne of England, I 
could have vindicated my rights by force of 
arms." 

"Would to God, then," exclaimed the 
nettled Raleigh, "that it had been put to the 
test!" 

"Ha, why do you say that?" inquired the 
King. 

"Because, your Majesty," was the unex- 
pected rejoinder, "you would then have 
known your friends from your foes!" 

This was a discrimination that King James 
never made, for all foes could be his friends 
if they were but proficient in flattery. His 
perceptions were dull, his nature indolent, 
and he gladly gave into Sir Robert Cecil's 
hands the weighty affairs of state. Having 
ousted almost everybody else from the King's 
presence, Sir Robert, the sycophant, exerted 
himself to the utmost to fill all the positions 
they had filled. He was the King's prime- 
minister, his secretary — his factotum in 
every sense of the word. It was not long 
after the coronation of James had taken 
place that his faithful little "Beagle" 
brought him fearsome tidings of a most 
224 



THE GREAT CONSPIRACY 

** surprising treason" against his Majesty. 
A "plot of the priests," he also termed it, 
since it had begun with the intrigues of a 
secular priest named William Watson, who 
joined with him another of his order, Francis 
Gierke. These two, somehow, sectired the 
connivance of George Brooke, a dissolute 
brother of Lord Cobham; of Anthony Cop- 
ley, a reckless adventurer and one-time pen- 
sioner of the Pope ; and Sir Griffin Markham, 
a nobleman who owned a magnificent estate 
including a noble park so vast that it seemed 
a part of the primeval forest. 

This quintet of conspirators met one after- 
noon in the environs of Sir Griffin's park, 
and, having taken an oath of secrecy, dis- 
cussed the details of a most surprising trea- 
son, indeed. It was nothing less than the 
seizing of the King that they contemplated, 
and the confining of his Majesty in his own 
Tower of London. How they were to capt- 
ure him, surroimded as he was by his guards, 
and how they were to seize the almost im- 
pregnable Tower, they could not tell at that 
time, but this was their scheme. Wild and 
visionary as it was, there was a grim purpose 
behind it, and this was to confine him as a 
hostage until certain reforms should be 
225 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

granted the Catholics, in whose interests they 
professed to be working. All the original 
conspirators were Catholics, but before the 
plot matured they secured the connivance 
of the young and brilliant Lord Grey of 
Wilton, a Puritan of the Puritans, who had 
become offended at the King on account of 
favors withdrawn from his own faction and 
disposed upon others whom he considered 
not so worthy of his Majesty's regard. 

And this was the plot : to seize the King's 
person at Greenwich on June 24th, when 
on his way to Windsor, overcome his guards, 
and then rely upon the assembling of the 
people, under the pretext of presenting a 
monster petition for the numerical strength 
sufficient to carry out their fell design. But 
the people, as usual, proved an uncertain and 
unreliable element to reckon on, and the 
scheme fell through. There were also dis- 
sensions among the plotters, for Watson, 
the priest, suspected Lord Grey, the Puritan, 
of an intention of turning the affair to his 
own profit by a counter-attack, releasing the 
King from the clutches of the confederates 
when they should have had him in their 
power, and then securing from him all the 
advantages they had hoped to gain for his 
226 



THE GREAT CONSPIRACY 

own people, the Puritans. Thus there was 
a plot within a plot, or at least the suspicion 
of one, and rather than be the means of 
benefiting the Puritans, Watson concluded 
it were better to betray the scheme and de- 
pend upon the King's magnanimity for a 
pardon. So he conspired against the con- 
spirators, and thus information leaked out, 
through a Jesuit priest named Blackwell, 
that put the court on its guard and set the 
wheels of official machinery in motion that 
eventually brought some of the plotters to 
the block. 

This was the "Treason of the Main," as it 
was called, to distinguish it from the *' Trea- 
son of the Bye," or another plot which had 
for its object a change in the royal succes- 
sion. The "Main," or the principal treason, 
would, if successful, have endangered the 
lives of the King and his family, for it was 
the intention, as one of the conspirators is 
said to have expressed it, of making way with 
the "old fox and his cubs." He was, how- 
ever, a wary old "fox," and now that his 
suspicions and those of his little "Beagle" 
were aroused, sniffed treason in the very air. 
He surmised, and probably was aided in the 
surmise by his "Beagle," that the next at- 

x6 227 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

tempt would be made upon the *' royal succes- 
sion," and investigations were promptly car- 
ried on, with the inevitable result that others 
than those who have been already named 
were implicated in the ''Treason of the Bye." 

There was but one who could be used in 
setting up a claim to the throne to which 
King James had been called, and this one 
was the young and beautiful Lady Arabella. 
She was the great-granddaughter of Margaret 
Tudor, daughter of Henry VII., and sister 
of Henry VIII., the father of Elizabeth. 
She was the next heir in the succession to 
both the English and Scottish thrones after 
James, whose strength lay in his double 
descent from Margaret Tudor. Arabella 
Stuart could claim only a single descent from 
her great-grandmother ; but she was of Eng- 
lish birth, while James had been bom in Scot- 
land, and to the end of his days continued a 
Scotsman of the Scots. 

The lovely Arabella had concerned her- 
self very little about the succession, and it is 
doubtful even if she cared for the crown 
which her indiscreet admirers wished to 
place upon her youthful head. When very 
young she had been presented at Elizabeth's 
court, at which event the "Virgin Queen" 
228 



THE GREAT CONSPIRACY 

had playfully remarked to one of her ladies 
in waiting : ' * Sometime the little Arabella will 
be mistress here, even as I am!" 

Among those who heard this remark was 
probably Sir Walter Raleigh, for he was at 
conrt and in favor at the time. Perhaps the 
Queen may have discussed with him the 
matter of succession, though this, in view 
of her repugnance to the topic, is unlikely. 
With whatever favor Elizabeth regarded the 
child, she was not prevented by sentiment 
from seizing lands belonging to her in Eng- 
land, while in Scotland the crafty James 
despoiled her, not only of her paternal do- 
main, but her mother's precious jewels as 
well. Thus she was rendered almost por- 
tionless, in order, perhaps, that she might 
not seem so attractive to dowry - seeking 
princes. 

Now, Sir Walter Raleigh was probably the 
last man in England to think of advocating, 
much more risking life and fortune for, the 
succession of Lady Arabella to the throne, 
yet this charge was brought against him by 
his enemies. He was as surprised as any 
one could be who had never considered the 
matter seriously, and declared that he had 
seen the princess but once, and that was the 
229 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

year before the Armada was defeated, when 
she was scarcely twelve years of age. He 
did not like her then, he asserted, with em- 
phasis, and he had given her no thought at 
any time since, so why should he be accused 
of this constructive treason to his king? 

This accusation was only preliminary to 
another far more serious: that of conspiring 
with a foreign enemy in the interests of the 
Spaniards. The Count of Arenberg, united 
to the Infanta Isabella ("whose shadowy 
claim to the succession of Elizabeth was a 
pretext for the cry of Essex that the throne 
of England was 'sold to the Spaniards'"), 
had attempted to negotiate a peace, with 
Lord Cobham as intermediary. As Cecil 
and the King well knew. Sir Walter Raleigh, 
the most determined enemy to Spain, would 
not be likely to advocate any terms with 
that country gained by peaceful means, and 
he was the last person who should have been 
accused, as he was, of accepting a bribe for 
promoting the treaty in England. The 
bribe was offered, his enemies declared, and 
he engaged that there should be no opposition 
from the English navy. This accusation was 
even more absurd than the previous one, 
and, had there been no peril in it, might have 
230 



THE GREAT CONSPIRACY 

been treated by Sir Walter with the con- 
tempt it merited; but it carried an implica- 
tion of treason, the penalty for which, at 
the King's discretion, was an attainder and 
death. 

One morning in July, 1603, as Sir Walter 
was walking for exercise on the castle terrace 
at Windsor, he was tapped on the shoulder 
by the ''Beagle," who informed him that the 
lords in council desired to speak with him. 
He went directly to the council chamber, 
and there was questioned as to his knowl- 
edge of the "surprising treason," of the plot 
to place the Lady Arabella on the throne, 
and also of his connection with Lord Cobham 
with reference to the Arenberg negotiations. 

He replied that he knew absolutely noth- 
ing of any plot to surprise the King's person, 
nothing whatever respecting the Lady Ara- 
bella, and nothing treasonable in the peace 
negotiations conducted by Arenberg and 
Cobham. He admitted that overtures had 
been made to him — ^hints of several thousand 
crow^ns as his share — provided the plan for 
peace should succeed, but that he had not 
considered them seriously. 

If he had spumed them, as he should have 
done, his career as a courtier might not have 
231 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

terminated so quickly, and the proceedings 
might not have been entered upon that placed 
his life in peril. But he was not the only 
subject of King James to whom Spanish gold 
had been freely offered — by some accepted. 
Even Cecil himself rested many years under 
the imputation that he was a secret pen- 
sioner of Spain. There was no crime im- 
plied in having been offered a bribe, nor even 
in having accepted one, but in being found 
out! The acceptance of a bribe was lenient- 
ly regarded, and even looked on as a matter 
of course, but it might prove a deadly weapon 
in the hands of one's enemies. 

It was not shown, either in the council 
chamber or during the subsequent trial of 
Sir Walter for treason, that he had been 
bribed in this particular instance; but it was 
assumed that he had, for it was known that 
his venality was not proof against one — if it 
were large enough; and it was also neces- 
sary for the perfection of that web of "evi- 
dence" in which he was to be entangled and 
dragged to destruction. Raleigh disclaimed 
any treasonable intention in his intercourse 
with Cobham, nor, he said, had he observed 
anything suspicious in his conduct; but as 
an after-thought it came to him that he had 
232 



THE GREAT CONSPIRACY 

held questionable communication with one 
Renzi, a reputed agent of Count Arenberg, 
and this information he unwisely communi- 
cated to the council in a letter. He after- 
ward wrote to Cecil that * ' if Renzi were not 
secured the matter would not be discov- 
ered, for Renzi would fly; yet, if he were 
then apprehended, it would give matter of 
suspicion to Lord Cobham." He may have 
meant nothing more than to shift the respon- 
sibility upon the foreigners or upon Cobham ; 
but his act was unworthy a gentleman, and 
was swiftly requited in kind, as will shortly 
appear. 

The principal in the plot. Lord Cobham, 
was arrested and taken before the lords in 
council. He exonerated Sir Walter entirely ; 
but the latter' s foes — as the lords proved 
themselves to be — showed him the portion of 
that unfortunate letter relating to his inter- 
course with Renzi. It was a confidential 
commimication to Cecil, whose meanness in 
disclosing its contents to the ''noble lords" 
was only paralleled by theirs in availing 
themselves of such a subterfuge. But it did 
the work well, for upon reading this passage, 
Cobham burst out, in a fury : " Oh, the traitor ! 
Oh, the villain ! Now will I confess the truth ! ' ' 
233 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

What he then disclosed was not the truth, 
but a fabrication of his own, to the effect 
that he, by agreement with Arenberg, was 
to go into Spain, there to receive five 
hundred thousand crowns, which he was to 
bring to Raleigh, who, as governor of Jersey, 
possessed facilities for distributing the money 
among the rebellious troops they were to 
incite to rise against the crown. The state- 
ment was a mere tissue of lies; but it was 
what Cecil and his accomplices desired, and 
notwithstanding the fact that Cobham re- 
tracted it wholly in a subsequent assertion, 
upon it was based the charge of treason that 
resulted in the immediate committal of Sir 
Walter Raleigh to the Tower. 

To be accused of treason was in effect to 
be convicted; to be convicted meant the 
loss of all properties, degradation, death. 
Raleigh knew what it signified to be im- 
prisoned on such a charge, and he foresaw 
the end as clearly as if his doom were al- 
ready pronounced. Realizing that all his for- 
mer friends were against him, that the King, 
the courtiers, the people, were desirous of his 
death, he gave way to despair, and in the 
solitude of his cell made an attempt upon 
his life. His mind was distracted, no doubt ; 
234 



THE GREAT CONSPIRACY 

but one of his friends alleged afterward: 
" Sir Walter Raleigh is said to have declared 
that his design to kill himself arose from no 
feeling of fear, but was formed in order that 
his fate might not serve as a triumph to his 
enemies, whose power to put him to death, 
despite his innocency, he well knows." 

He poured out his soul in a long letter to 
his wife, among other things saying: **I 
have desired God and disputed with my 
reason, but nature and compassion have the 
victory. That I can live to think how you 
are both left a spoil of my enemies, and that 
my name shall be a dishonor to my child — I 
cannot. I cannot endure the thought there- 
of! ... I am now made an enemy and traitor 
by the word of an unworthy man. He hath 
proclaimed me a partaker of his vain imagi- 
nations, notwithstanding the whole course 
of my life hath approved the contrary — as 
my death shall approve it. ... Be not dis- 
mayed that I die in despair of God's mercies. 
Strive not to dispute it. But assure thy- 
self that God hath not left me, nor Satan 
tempted me. Hope and despair live not 
together. I know it is forbidden to destroy 
ourselves; but I trust it is forbidden in this 
sort: that we destroy ourselves despairing 
235 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

of God's mercy. For the mercy of God is 
immeasurable; the cogitations of men com- 
prehend it not." 

But the self-inflicted wound was not fatal — 
"rather a cut than a stab," as Cecil himself 
describes it, having gone to him and *' found 
him in some agony: seeming imable to en- 
dure his misfortunes, and protesting in- 
nocency, with carelessness of life." The 
wound soon healed, but the scar of it Raleigh 
carried on his breast to his death. If it were 
intended to have an effect upon Cecil, it 
failed utterly, for the *' Little Beagle" fetched 
and carried between the Tower and the 
court, until at last his quarry was brought 
to bay at the bar of so-called ''justice." 

While confined in the Tower, Sir Walter 
obtained from his fellow-prisoner, Cobham, 
a retraction in writing of his original state- 
ment against him, the pith of which was: 
"/ never had conference with you in any 
treason, nor was I ever moved by you to the 
things I heretofore accused you of. And, 
for anything I know, you are as innocent and 
as clear from any treasons against the King 
as is any subject living. God so deal with 
me, and have mercy on my soul, as this is 
true!" 

236 



THE GREAT CONSPIRACY 

The retraction availed not with the ''noble 
lords," with Cecil, or with the King; for on 
November 17th following, the author of it, 
together with his brother, George Brooke, 
and the victim of his malice. Sir Walter 
Raleigh, were placed on trial. They were 
charged in the indictment with "conspir- 
ing to deprive the King of his crown and 
dignity; to subvert the government, and 
alter the true religion established in Eng- 
land, and to levy war against the King." 
Lord Cobham, the indictment further alleges, 
''had discourse with the said Sir Walter 
Raleigh, then Captain of the Isle of Jersey, 
concerning the means of exciting rebellion 
against the King, and raising one Arabella 
Stuart to the Crown of England; and 
further, that for such purpose the said Lord 
Cobham should treat with Charles, Count of 
Arenberg, to obtain five or six hundred 
thousand crowns from Philip, King of Spain, 
to enable the said traitors to effect their 
treasons . . . and should likewise cross the 
seas and proceed to Spain to treat with the 
King of Spain, and persuade him to support 
the pretended title of Arabella Stuart to the 
Crown of England." 

This was the flimsy indictment, the se- 
237 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

quence to a plot which may never have been 
schemed, and which to-day is wrapped in 
mystery. The trial that followed was the 
most notable of the innumerable miscar- 
riages of so-called "British justice" ever re- 
corded. It was conducted in ancient Wolve- 
sey Castle, before a "King's Bench," at the 
head of which was Sir John Popham, and 
containing, among others, the very lords of 
the council who had made the preliminary 
examinations and formulated the indict- 
ment. It was evident from the very first 
that they had determined to convict at least 
one of the accused, Sir Walter Raleigh, and 
to the end that this conviction might be 
brought about with a semblance of fairness, 
the jury had been carefully "packed," in 
advance, with his enemies. 

When asked if he wished to challenge any 
of the jurors, Raleigh unsuspectingly replied: 
"I know none of them, but think them all 
honest and Christian gentlemen. I know 
mine own innocency, and therefore will 
challenge none." The sequel showed that 
he had unduly credited them with being 
"gentlemen," for, like his judges, and like 
the common people, who had mobbed him 
when on the way from Tower to castle, so 
238 



THE GREAT CONSPIRACY 

that "it was hab or nab whether he should 
have been brought aHve through such multi- 
tudes of unruly folk who did exclaim against 
him," they hated him, because of the well- 
known hatred of the King as toward Sir 
Walter Raleigh. They hated him, and, 
moreover, they knew the part they had to 
play, which was merely to do the King's 
bidding and convict the prisoner. 

They might have taken their cue from the 
attorney-general, the brutal and vindictive 
Coke (had they not been already instructed) , 
for he, though no evidence had been given, 
nor ever was obtained, to connect Raleigh 
with the ''treasons of the priests," proceeded 
to accuse him of them all. He quoted the 
remark attributed to one of the conspirators, 
respecting the "old fox and his cubs," as 
though it had been Raleigh's own, and then 
turned dramatically to him with the ques- 
tion: "To whom. Sir Walter, did you bear 
malice? To the royal children?" Raleigh 
in vain protested to the jury that he had 
not made the remark, neither had any- 
thing to do with the priests' treasons, when 
Coke retorted : ' ' Nay, but I will prove 
all. Thou art a monster; the most noto- 
rious traitor that ever came to the bar! 
239 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

Thou hast an English face, but a Spanish 
heart!" 

And this to one who had persistently 
fought the Spaniards from his first days of 
soldiering! This to the hero of Cadiz and 
the Azores, who had done more for the 
preservation of England from her Spanish 
foes than any man then present at that 
trial! 

Sir Walter swallowed the affront, and pa- 
tiently rejoined: "No, no, Master Attorney, 
I am no traitor. Whether I live or die, 
I shall stand as true a subject as ever the 
King hath. You may call me a 'traitor,' 
at your pleasure, yet it becomes not a man 
of quality or virtue to do so. But I take 
comfort in it. It is all that you can do, for 
I do not hear yet that you charge me with 
any treason." 

"It is very strange," said Raleigh, ad- 
dressing the jury, "that I, at this time, 
should be thought to plot with the Lord 
Cobham, knowing him a man that hath 
neither love nor following; and myself, at 
this time, having resigned a place of my best 
command, in an office I had in Cornwall. 

" I was not so bare of sense but I saw that, 
if ever this state was strong, it was now that 
240 



THE GREAT CONSPIRACY 

we have the kingdom of Scotland united, 
whence we were wont to fear all our troubles, 
and Ireland divided, where our forces were 
wont to be divided. . . . And instead of a 
lady whom time had surprised [Elizabeth, 
in her old age], we had now an active King 
who would be present at his own business. 
For me, at this time, to make myself a 
Robin Hood, a Wat Tyler, or a Jack Cade— 
I was not so mad! I knew the state of 
Spain well — its king's weakness, his poor- 
ness, his humbleness, at this time. I knew 
that six times we had repulsed his forces: 
thrice in Ireland, thrice at sea, once upon 
our own coast, and twice upon his own. 
Thrice had I served against him myself at 
sea, wherein for my country's sake I had 
expended of my own property forty thousand 
marks! . . . And to show I am not 'Spanish' 
— as you term me — at this time I had writ 
a treatise to the King of the present state 
of Spain, and reasons against the peace." 

In response, Attorney Coke merely made 
answer with scurrilous epithet, calling the 
prisoner a "damnable atheist," a "spider of 
hell," and repeatedly "an Englishman with 
a Spanish heart." "Methinks," he said, 
with a sneer, " it would have been better for 
241 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

you to have staid in Guiana than to be so 
well acquainted with the state of Spain. As 
to the six overthrows of the King of Spain, 
I make answer: 'he hath the more malice,' 
because repulses breed desire of revenge. 
As for your writing against the Peace with 
Spain: you sought but to cloak a Spanish 
traitor's heart!" 

Innuendo and invective constituted the 
bulk of the accusations against this prisoner 
on trial for his life. His indignant demand, 
**Let me answer, it concerns my life!" was 
denied. His request to meet his accuser 
face to face was refused ; his statement that 
by the law no man could be convicted of 
treason on the mere testimony of a single 
witness was declared to be false, though the 
edict was then on the statute-books. Still, 
freedom of speech was not denied the pris- 
oner, nor did his courage forsake him. He 
made his cogent reasonings felt by all pres- 
ent at the trial, and his dignified bearing, 
his lofty demeanor, his freedom from all 
fear (though within the shadow of the scaf- 
fold, as he well knew), made ample amends 
for his craven behavior when in prison. 
Said Sir Roger Aston, a confidential servant 
of the King: ''Never man spoke so well in 
242 



THE GREAT CONSPIRACY 

times past, nor would do so in times to come." 
Another gentleman asserted that although 
he would, before the trial, "have gone a 
thousand miles to see Sir Walter hanged, I 
would, ere we parted, have gone a thousand 
miles to have saved his life!" 

When, after but a quarter-hour's delibera- 
tion, the jury returned a verdict of guilty, 
Raleigh was asked if he had anything to say 
in stay of judgment, he calmly answered: 
*'My lords, the jury have found me guilty. 
They must do as they are directed. I can say 
nothing why judgment should not proceed. 
You see whereof Cobham hath accused me. 
You remember his protestations that I was 
never guilty! . . . 

" I desire that the King should know these 
things. I was accused to be a practiser with 
Spain. I never knew that my Lord Cob- 
ham meant to go thither; but I will ask no 
mercy at the King's hands if he will affirm 
it. Secondly, I never knew of the practises 
with Arabella. Thirdly, I never knew of 
m}^ Lord Cobham's practises with Arenberg, 
nor of the 'surprising treason.'" 

Then judgment was pronounced. Chief - 
Justice Popham, in the most brutal manner 
of which he was capable, sentenced his victim 
243 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

to death. He was to be drawn on a hurdle 
to the place of his execution, there to be 
hanged ; but to be cut down while yet alive, 
to have his heart torn out and his head 
severed from his body, which was to be 
quartered, and subject to the pleasure of 
the King. 



XVI 

TWELVE YEARS A PRISONER 
1603-1615 

RALEIGH heard the fearful sentence with- 
, out a tremor, and after it was deliver- 
ed calmly addressed the lords, requesting 
merely, that though he was to suffer the ex- 
treme penalty, it might not be through the 
ignominious death prescribed by the venge- 
ful judge. A disdainful smile played about 
his lips, and his eyes flashed angrily, as he 
also demanded that, if Cobham were exe- 
cuted, he should precede him to the scaf- 
fold, since, he said, **he can face neither me 
nor death, without acknowledging his false- 
hoods." 

He was taken to a cell in Winchester 
Castle, where, according to his enemies, his 
high courage deserted him to the extent that 
he wrote to the King begging him to spare 
his life for future service in his Majesty's 
behalf. Fully believing his end was nigh, 
245 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

he wrote a farewell letter to his wife which, 
though he was in error as to his immediate 
demise, reveals the workings of his sorrow- 
stricken heart, but gives no evidence of 
fear : 

"... You shall receive, dear wife, my last words 
in these my last lines. My love I send you, that 
you may keep it when I am dead; and my counsel, 
that you may remember it when I am no more. 
I would not with my last will present you with 
sorrows, dear Bess. Let them with me go to the 
grave, and be buried with me in the dust. And, 
seeing it is not the will of God that ever I shall 
see you in this life, bear my destruction gently, 
and with a heart like yourself." 

After minute instructions as to the dis- 
position of his properties, he continued: 

"Remember your poor child for his father's 
sake, that chose and loved you in his happiest times. 
Get those letters which I writ to the Lords, 
wherein I sued for my life ; but God knoweth that 
it was for you and yours that I desired it; but it 
is true that I disdain myself for begging it. And 
know, dear wife, that your son is the child of a 
true man, and who, in his own respect, despiseth 
Death, and all his misshapen, ugly forms. 

" I cannot write much. God knows how hardly 
I stole this time, when all sleep; and it is time to 
separate my thoughts from this world. Beg my 
246 



TWELVE YEARS A PRISONER 

dead body, which living was denied you, and 
either lay it at Sherborne, if the land continue 
[in your possession], or in Exeter church, by my 
father and mother. 

" I can write no more. Time and Death call me 
away. The everlasting, infinite, powerful, and in- 
scrutable God, that is goodness itself, mercy it- 
self, the true life and light, keep you and yours; 
have mercy on me, teach me to forgive my per- 
secutors and false accusers; and send us to meet 
in His glorious kingdom! My true wife, farewell. 
Bless my poor boy; pray for me. May God hold 
you both in his arms. 

" Written with the dying hand of sometime thy 
husband; but now, alas, overthrown. 

" Yotirs that was, but now not my own. 

"W. Ralegh." 

True, he was no longer his own; he was 
completely at the mercy of the King, and 
the ''wise fool" played with his victim as a 
cat plays with a mouse. Had he sent Sir 
Walter directly to the block, as the tortured 
prisoner expected would be his fate, greater 
mercy would have been shown than was 
accorded him; but fifteen long and agonizing 
years were yet to be added to that life which 
had been declared forfeit to the King. The 
infamous James only delayed signing Sir 
Walter's death-warrant because he had yet 
other tortures in store for him. One of the 
247 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

perjured judges who condemned him de- 
clared on his death-bed that the justice of 
England had never been so degraded and 
injured as in that condemnation, and it 
may be added that never had an inscrutable 
Providence permitted a baser sovereign to 
wring the heart-strings of a nobler subject! 

The hapless instigators of the ''surprising 
treason," Gierke and Watson, were executed, 
and their remains degraded, on November 
29th. Their accomplice, George Brooke, 
followed them to the scaffold a week later. 
The headsman held aloft the dissevered 
head of Brooke, and cried out, "God save 
the King!" as usual, but there was no re- 
sponse from the crowd. The people were 
sullen, dissatisfied, and even the dull in- 
telligence of the King could perceive that 
they considered his worthless life too high 
a purchase at the cost of so many subjects. 

Now the applause of the populace, com- 
posed though it was of an uncouth nation's 
** shin-fed savages," was sweet to the ear of 
this Scottish immigrant, and he quickly 
veered about to the side of clemency. He 
planned a farce to take the place of trag- 
edy, so that when, on December loth. Grey, 
Cobham, and Markham were brought to the 
248 



TWELVE YEARS A PRISONER 

block, they were severally confronted with 
a commutation of their sentence; that is, 
their agonies were prolonged, their deaths 
postponed, though all perished miserably in 
the end — so miserably, indeed, that they 
really died a thousand deaths before the 
sweet relief of final dissolution. 

The agonizing scene was prolonged through 
several hours, and from his grated window 
in the castle Sir Walter saw it all. He saw 
Markham first led to the block, where he was 
permitted to pray, and where, urged by the 
sheriff, he declared his sentence just. Then 
he was led away, and in his place stood 
Grey, with whom a like farce was enacted, 
after he, too, had prepared himself by prayer 
to meet his doom. Last of all came Cob- 
ham, who prayed so long and loud that the 
impatient spectators cried out that he must 
have been informed of the forthcoming re- 
prieve. His seeming indifference, too, with 
the axe and the executioner beside him, ap- 
peared to confirm this impression. 

Finally all the actors in this strange 
tragedy disappeared, and the bewildered 
Raleigh, gazing distractedly through the 
bars, too far distant to hear what had been 
said, wondered what had, in truth, taken 
249 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

place. Perhaps the prisoners were to be exe- 
cuted at some other spot ! He could not be- 
lieve they had been more than reprieved, 
and every instant he expected his own sum- 
mons to the block. But he had heard the 
shouts of the " shin - eaters " as they ac- 
claimed the magnanimity of their sover- 
eign, and may have gained an inkling of 
the truth. *'God save our King!" they 
had loudly shouted, and James, promptly 
informed of the fact, fancied himself a 
very grand and magnanimous sovereign 
indeed. 

Perhaps we are wrong in judging the oc- 
currences of that age by the standards of 
our own; but was not human life the same 
then as now — man made in the image of his 
Maker? The Englishmen of that day were 
gross, brutal, bestial, if we may believe the 
historians. Queen Elizabeth saw no impro- 
priety in beating her maids of honor "so 
that those beauteous girls could often be 
heard crying and lamenting in a piteous 
manner." 

Did not the unfortunate Lady Jane Grey 

receive such despiteful treatment, ''being 

pinched and boxed, and ill-treated in other 

manners which she dare not relate," that 

250 



TWELVE YEARS A PRISONER 

she often wished herself dead? So severe 
were the punishments meted out for trivial 
offences, the death penalty being often in- 
voked, that life lost its sacredness in the eyes 
of many. 

"Throughout, a stem discipline, and the 
axe ready for every suspicion of treason- 
great men, bishops, a chancellor, prmces, 
the King's relatives, queens, a protector 
kneeling in the straw, sprinkled the Tower 
with their blood. One after the other they 
marched past, stretched out their necks: the 
Duke of Buckingham, Queen Anne Boleyn, 
Catherine Howard, the Earl of Surrey, Ad- 
miral Seymour, the Duke of Somerset, Lady 
Jane Grey and her husband, the Duke of 
Northumberland, Mary Stuart, the Earl of 
Essex— all on the throne or the steps of 
the throne, in the highest ranks of honors, 
beauty, youth, and genius. Of the bright 
procession nothing is left but senseless 
trunks, marred by the tender mercies of the 
executioner."^ 

No haste was made to relieve Raleigh's 
anxiety, and for a long time he awaited 
events, believing every hour might be his 
last. At last he was told that the King, m 

1 Froude's History of England. 
251 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

his clemency, had consented to render him 
his Hfe for a season, and then he was com- 
mitted to the Tower, there to pass the en- 
suing years, to the number of twelve, within 
its frowning walls. 

A king who assumed the prerogatives of 
the Almighty, and who granted his subjects 
length of days, or cut them short, at his 
pleasure, could not but have inculcated in 
them a slavish humility, such as is dis- 
gustingly manifest in Raleigh whenever he 
suffered a reaction. In his dual personality 
existed a man and a puppet — the former 
created by God, the latter bred in the 
vitiating atmosphere of courts. Against the 
God-given man no power on earth could pre- 
vail, for he feared not death, nor cared 
greatly for life. But the devitalized puppet 
was ever ready to bow the knee before base- 
bom kings and queens, whom he had er- 
roneously been taught to revere, as partak- 
ing more of the divine than the human. 
Hence we find him writing slaveringly to the 
monarch who had put his life in peril for no 
crime whatever, as though in the hands of 
the mongrel James were the keys of heaven 
and of earth. 

This is the extent of Raleigh's self-degra- 
252 



TWELVE YEARS A PRISONER 

dation while a prisoner in the Tower, waiting, 
during a dozen years, permission to make 
his exit therefrom and perform his duties to 
the world. All that time the paltering 
James existed without the walls, king by the 
''grace of God" and the imbecility of a semi- 
civilized people. Sir Walter existed within, 
and, being thrown upon himself for enter- 
tainment, drew upon forces which hitherto 
he had not dreamed of possessing. It was 
not in his nature to remain at ease and 
quiescent, for the ferment of his mind was 
sufficient to keep his body in motion, and, 
deprived of friends sensate, he made friends 
of things inanimate. 

Books were allowed him, and in a little 
garden adjacent to the ''Bloody Tower" in 
which he was confined he was permitted to 
build a laboratory. As the most vindictive 
of his keepers reported to the King, "he 
hath converted a hen-house into a still-house, 
where he doth spend his time all the day in 
his distillations." This was several years 
after he had been committed, and that he 
passed his time there to some good account 
is shown by his decoction from spices and 
cordials, the fame of which induced the 
Queen to send for it in Prince Henry's last 
253 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

illness. The gallant Prince Henry was as 
unlike his father as one might wish him to 
be, and yet did not resemble his frivolous 
mother, possessing virtues to which they 
were strangers. Perhaps that is why he 
died in youth, before he became corrupted 
by the contaminating presence of his father ; 
but however this may be, he manifested a 
strong regard for Sir Walter Raleigh, with 
whom he formed an acquaintance that lasted 
till his death in 1612. 

The young Prince often asked his father 
why he kept such a brilliant bird in a cage, 
and importuned him for his release; but the 
King did not consent to humor him until he 
was stretched upon his death-bed. It was 
only a promise that he gave him then, and a 
promise unfulfilled at that, for Raleigh owed 
his eventual release from prison to bribes he 
paid some influential members of the King's 
court, and not directly to the intercession of 
the Prince or his mother. To humor his 
young friend, however, Raleigh began writ- 
ing his adventures, which interested the boy 
so greatly that he undertook and carried 
through a work which he called Observations 
on the Royal Navy and Sea Service, and dedi- 
cated to his friendly patron. 
254 



TWELVE YEARS A PRISONER 

Prince Henry could not imagine this 
courtly and dignified cavalier, whose inbred 
delicacy of sentiment was in such striking 
contrast to his father's boorishness, capable 
of plotting that parent's destruction. He 
no more believed it than King James him- 
self believed it; but the King had wronged 
Sir Walter too deeply to allow him unrestrict- 
ed liberty. He did not deny his son and 
heir to the throne access to Sir Walter's 
quarters, and among his cheering consola- 
tions were the visits of the Prince. The most 
cheering, doubtless, was the presence in the 
Tower of Lady Raleigh, who was allowed to 
share his imprisonment part of the time, but 
who was subjected now and then to humiliat- 
ing treatment at the hands of a brutish keep- 
er. Sir William Waad. ''Little Wat," their 
only child, was also a frequent inmate of the 
''Bloody Tower," which abode of gloom he 
enlivened with his pranks and laughter. 
He was ever a lively boy, early developing 
into a youth of reckless manners, somewhat 
after the pattern, perhaps, afforded him by 
his father. It is related that when just out 
of college he fought a duel with a foreigner 
who had offended him, and was obliged to 
fly the country in consequence, for a while 
255 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

remaining abroad. At a dinner one day, 
after the release of Sir Walter from the 
Tower, he became so hilarious, and told such 
an unseemly tale, that his outraged father 
buffeted him across the face. Filial respect 
forbade him to return the blow, but he quick- 
ly turned to the man sitting beside him and 
struck him a similar one to that he had 
received, with the audacious remark: "Box 
about [the table]; it will get to father anon!" 
A second son, Carew, who was bom in 
the Tower, survived both his brother and 
father, and became the heir to Raleigh's 
ruined fortunes. Having been divested of 
all his honors and means of livelihood. Sir 
Walter's fortunes were at a very low ebb 
before he left the Tower; and, in fact, he 
had not been long an inmate there before the 
process of despoliation began that soon de- 
prived his wife and sons of w^hat little he 
had given them. His Irish estates he had 
disposed of to one Boyle, afterward the Earl 
of Cork, in 1602. He had been compelled 
to vacate his palace in London, Durham 
House, that it might eventually fall into the 
hands of Cecil, the "Beagle," who "nosed" 
out good things for himself until the ending; 
of his crooked existence in May, 161 2, 
256 



TWELVE YEARS A PRISONER 

But the most prized of Raleigh's posses- 
sions was the beautiful demesne of Sherborne, 
where he had built and planted, recreated 
and relaxed himself, amid the cares of Eliza- 
beth's reign. Here he had planned to enjoy 
the last days of his life, and then pass the 
estate on to his heirs in perpetuity. He 
had provided, he thought, for the transfer 
of this estate to his son, in the guardianship 
of his wife; but when it was learned that 
King James desired Sherborne for his Scotch 
favorite, Car, Earl of Somerset, a flaw in the 
title was conveniently found by the obse- 
quious Coke, who had hounded Raleigh to 
the scaffold's steps, and now deprived his 
wife and child of their sole means of support. 

Sir Walter held Sherborne on a ninety-nine- 
year lease, which he transferred to his son 
in 1602, when he "set his house in order" 
on account of a prospective duel with Sir 
Amy as Preston. The duel was not fought, 
but a flaw was discovered in the transfer, as 
already intimated, and only through the 
intercession of Cecil was Lady Raleigh en- 
abled to realize anything whatever from the 
estate. She was promised eight thousand 
pounds, a portion of which only was paid — 
to be invested and lost in the fatal expedi- 
257 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

tion to Guiana. When, yielding to the en- 
treaties of Prince Henry, the King re- 
purchased Sherborne from Car, to whom it 
had been conveyed, he gave him the sum of 
twenty thousand pounds. This was not in 
excess of its value, for when in Raleigh's 
possession it had yielded him an income of 
five thousand pounds a year. Lady Raleigh 
in vain entreated the King, on bended knees, 
flinging pride to the winds, to allow her to 
retain Sherborne as a place of abode. He 
stubbornly and invariably replied: *'I maun 
ha' the land; I maun ha' it for Car," and in 
the interest of the favorite it w^as practically 
confiscated. 

Thus passed out of Raleigh's possession 
the last of the large estates which he had 
received from Elizabeth. Shortly after, all 
his goods and chattels were, by the King's 
grant, placed in the hands of trustees for the 
benefit of his creditors, and he was actually 
impoverished. He had lost all but his title, 
and that, as the world well knew, was but an 
empty honor. As the years w^ent on all men 
forgot his existence, except when they were 
occasionally reminded of him as formerly one 
of England's heroes; so he came to have a 
part in his country's traditions while yet 
258 



TWELVE YEARS A PRISONER 

alive. He became a memory only, save that 
now and then those who walked past the 
Tower saw him at exercise in the garden. 
But he was determined that his name should 
not perish, even though what he had done 
already had not secured for him recognition 
as one of England's worthies. 

Taken from the field of active endeavor, 
in which like a man full grown he had well 
performed his part, Raleigh found, in the en- 
forced leisure afforded by his imprisonment, 
the opportunity for his greatest literary 
labor. After several years of fruitless ap- 
peals and negotiations for freedom, he finally 
became settled in the conviction that his 
residence in the Tower was to be for life, be 
it long or short, and resigned himself to his 
fate. Then he called for pen and ink and 
paper, and set himself to the task of produc- 
ing his long-contemplated History of the 
World. This work was his in every sense of 
the word, but in its production he had the 
sympathetic co-operation of England's great- 
est minds. ''Rare Ben" Jonson wrote the 
title-verses, though he did not at first avow 
them; Heriot, Raleigh's friend, the philos- 
opher, who wrote such an excellent account 
of the Roanoke colony, was his authority 
^8 259 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

on chronology and geography; in fact, the 
historian of the Tower reached out all over 
London for collaborators in this great work, 
which was to make for him a posthumous 
reputation, though it was, at first, financially 
a failure. 

The first edition of Raleigh's History ap- 
peared in 1 614, though its title had been 
registered three years earlier, and it was 
such a success as a literary product that an- 
other was published in 161 7. Perhaps its 
sales were stimulated by the action of the 
King, who, morbidly jealous of Raleigh as a 
rival litterateur, ordered the first impression 
called in. This order was issued in January, 
1 61 5, the only excuse given for it being, in 
the words of James, that it was " too saucy in 
censuring the acts of princes." It was not 
a complete history of the world, for it was 
never finished, the reason appearing in the 
following anecdote: A short time before 
his death, the story runs, Sir Walter sent for 
his publisher and asked him how the work 
had sold. "So slowly," was the answer, 
"that it hath undone me." 

With a sigh Sir Walter took from his desk 
the remaining portion of his History, in manu- 
script, and sadly said: "Ah friend, hath the 
260 



TWELVE YEARS A PRISONER 

first part undone thee ? The second portion, 
then, shall undo ye no more. This ungrate- 
ful world is unworthy of it." So saying, he 
stepped to the hearth, where an open fire 
was burning, and casting the manuscript upon 
the coals, watched it until entirely consumed. 

The History, as we know, was not Raleigh's 
sole literary achievement, though perhaps 
his greatest; for, besides his "output" from 
the Tower, already mentioned, he had 
written creditable verses, even a poem of 
such beauty as to be ascribed to Spenser. 
Besides his Discovery of Guiana, the Fight 
in the Azores, and the History, all of which 
were published in his lifetime, he left several 
works which appeared after his death, such 
as a Treatise on the West Indies, The Arts of 
Empire, and Maxims of the State, showing 
not only extreme versatility, but acute un- 
derstanding. Though unappreciated by his 
contemporaries, and painfully aware of it, he 
yet "toiled terribly," as was said of him in 
Elizabeth's time, at the producing of im- 
mortal works for posterity to peruse. 

Sir Walter seems to have given over 

thoughts of freedom, and, wrapped up as he 

was in his absorbing labors, he may not have 

been desirous of immediate liberty. Still, 

261 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

there were intercessions for him at the court 
where, after Prince Henry had departed, the 
Queen mother took an interest in his cause. 
He had the sad satisfaction of knowing 
that the world yet gave him an occasional 
thought, the still sadder knowledge that few 
of his friends remained alive to greet him, 
few of his enemies to revile him, should he 
secure release from his long imprisonment. 

Cecil had left the w^orld in which he strove 
for highest honors; the vain but harmless 
Arabella died a prisoner in the Tower, whence 
the jewels of which she was so fond were ab- 
stracted by the King's order ere her body 
was cold. Just six months before she was 
liberated from the Tower by death came 
Sir Walter Raleigh's liberation, through the 
King's order, issued on January 30, 161 5. 
He was permitted to leave the Tower in 
charge of a keeper; but on March 17th, fol- 
lowing, he was allowed by the royal council 
to go abroad, under supervision, and make 
preparations for a voyage to which he had 
looked forward during all his years of im- 
prisonment. 



XVII 

THE FATEFUL VOYAGE 
1617 

RALEIGH was free at last, after twelve 
full years behind stone walls; but his 
freedom had been purchased, and was not 
the spontaneous act of his Majesty King 
James. Two relatives of Villiers Duke of 
Buckingham, had been bribed for fifteen 
hundred pounds, and for this sum secured 
that which Raleigh had pleaded in vain 
for many years. The new favorite, Buck- 
ingham, was disposed to be friendly, and 
the successor to Cecil, Sir Ralph Win wood, 
was an ardent admirer of Sir Walter, so 
that for the voyage he had in contempla- 
tion there seemed to be nothing ahead but 
smooth seas and "plain sailing." 

Whatever were Raleigh's thoughts as, a 

bowed and broken man of more than sixty, 

he emerged from his prison and looked about 

him, his spirits were still youthful, his ardor 

263 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

for exploration and discovery unquenched. 
During all that long term within the walls 
he had kept ever in mind the golden vision 
of Guiana — not as the land appeared to him 
in reality, but as the yet undiscovered El 
Dorado of the Indian myths. He had failed 
to find the mines, owing to the interposition 
of the Spaniards, but he never seems to have 
reasoned upon the fact that if there were a 
rich mine they would certainly have dis- 
covered and appropriated it long before. 
Spain was then at peace with England, and 
the English King would cravenly submit to 
any terms of accommodation with the erst- 
while and deadly enemy of his kingdom 
rather than jeopardize the scheme he then 
entertained of royal intennarriage. 

But Sir Walter Raleigh had too long nur- 
tured his own scheme of colonization in Vir- 
ginia and Guiana to abandon it easily, and 
the first activities of his liberty were devoted 
to its furtherance. Acting, as he thought, 
with the King's full acquiescence, he pro- 
ceeded to lay the keel of a ship, which, with 
perhaps prevision of his fateful voyage, he 
named the Destiny. 

His Majesty was privy to his plans, and 
Sir Ralph Winwood was eager to promote 
264 




JAMES I. 



THE FATEFUL VOYAGE 

them, but upon Raleigh fell the greater por- 
tion of the expense. Ten thousand pounds 
in all he succeeded in raising by raking and 
scraping together every available asset, and 
various adventurers, lured by his descrip- 
tion of El Dorado in the Discovery of Guiana, 
contributed three times that amount, or 
forty thousand pounds in total, which would 
amount to much more than two hundred 
thousand dollars in money of the present 
day. King James contributed nothing sub- 
stantial, but his intentions toward Sir Walter 
are shown in a warning note issued by his 
privy council, as follows: 

''His Majesty, out of his gracious inclina- 
tions towards you, being pleased to release 
you out of your imprisonment in the Towner, 
to go abroad with a keeper, to make your 
provisions for your intended voyage, we think 
it good to admonish you . . . that you should 
not presume to resort either to his. Majesty's 
Court, the Queen's, or Prince's ; nor go into any 
public assemblies whatsoever, without especial 
license obtained from his Majesty for your 
warrant. But only that you use the benefit of 
his Majesty's grace to follow the business which 
you are to undertake, and for which, upon your 
humble request, his Majesty hath been gra- 
ciously pleased to grant you that freedom." 
265 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

Thus Raleigh was reminded that he was 
no longer a free agent, that he was released 
for a single purpose only, which was to per- 
form that long-projected voyage to Guiana. 
The King was not only aware of his inten- 
tion, but more greatly promoted it than any 
other living being, by granting him his lib- 
erty, without which, of course, the voyage 
could not have been performed. Why, then, 
did the King, after the voyage was accom- 
plished, turn upon Raleigh and deliver him 
into the hands of his enemies ? For the real 
secret it would be necessary to look into the 
King's despicable heart, to inquire search- 
ingly of his evasive, shuffling nature the rea- 
son for his acting the part of a knave and 
an assassin; for knave he was, in urging 
Raleigh forward in an enterprise that he 
knew foredoomed to failure; assassin he was, 
because he encouraged him in a course which 
he also knew would bring him to the block! 

Now, Sir Walter Raleigh knew James for 
a fool, but he had not mistrusted that he was 
also a knave; hence he was enmeshed in a 
net contrived by the malice of his enemies, 
from which there was no escape save by 
flight to some other country than that in 
which he was born. Once afloat, with ships 
266 



THE FATEFUL VOYAGE 

of his own in command, he might do this, 
perhaps he thought, so he went on with his 
preparations for the voyage. These prep- 
arations took much time, and it was not 
until nearly two years after his release that 
he found himself finally in absolute freedom, 
once more sailing the seas from which he had 
so long a time been debarred. Once more, 
as admiral, he strode the quarter-deck; once 
more, in anticipation of a free and advent- 
urous life before him, he looked forward to 
a renewal of his youth. He had said fare- 
well to Lady Raleigh, leaving with her 
Carew, their youngest son, but had taken 
with him their eldest, gallant and dashing 
young Walter, who was in nominal com- 
mand of the Destiny as their flag-ship. 

While no secret had been made of his in- 
tentions, which were to find the gold-mines 
of El Dorado, and establish, if possible, a col- 
ony in the wilds of Guiana, Raleigh was not 
aware of the extent to which the Spaniards, 
who claimed control of that territory, had 
been advised of his plans by the perfidious 
King. From the very first, James had 
furnished the Spanish ambassador, Gon- 
domar, with the minutest details of the 
scheme, all of which had been forwarded to 
267 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

Spain, so that Raleigh's well-laid plans were 
already frustrated before he sailed. A Span- 
ish expedition had been sent to Trinidad 
long in advance of Raleigh's arrival there, 
and when he arrived, after a toilsome and 
disastrous voyage, it was only to find his in- 
tentions anticipated by the Spaniards. His 
eleven ships were of no great avail, because 
he could not attack the Spaniards; his war- 
like equipment and his soldiers were useless, 
save for defence against an enemy with 
whom his sovereign was at peace ; though he 
might be provoked to extremities, he could 
merely stand on the defensive. The advan- 
tages were every way with the Spaniards, 
as King James and Gondomar had intended 
them to be ; for if Raleigh sought to advance 
through Spanish territory, or if he retreated 
without having accomplished an3rthing, he 
must do so in the face of certain death. 
Though he had welcomed the prospect of a 
voyage, even with the hard conditions named 
by the King, because it would afford him 
freedom for a time, he now realized that he 
had been sent forth "with a halter round his 
neck." 

He left England in August, 1617, and after 
touching at Lancerota, in the Canaries, where 
268 



THE FATEFUL VOYAGE 

he had a tiff with the Spaniards but com- 
mitted no depredations, he stretched across 
the Atlantic to the northeast coast of South 
America. Anchoring off one of the numer- 
ous mouths of the great Orinoco — as on his 
former visit, twenty-two years before — he 
organized a flotilla of small boats to ascend 
the river. He had lost forty-five men by 
sickness on the voyage ; he was himself suf- 
fering from a fever, which had been upon 
him for three weeks; but, with all the energy 
of former days, he labored to get off the 
flotilla, which contained four hundred men, 
most of them worthless *' scum of the earth," 
but under excellent leadership. The com- 
mand of the land forces was bestowed upon 
his cousin, George Raleigh, under whom, 
nominally as captain, served young Walter, 
who was in the best of spirits and anxious 
to be off. The command of the whole was 
given to Captain Lawrence Kemys, who was 
his lieutenant in the expedition of 1595, a 
devoted retainer as well as efficient officer. 
Furnished with a month's provisions, amply 
armed, and imbued with their commander's 
enthusiasm, the explorers set off up the un- 
known affluent of the Orinoco. 

Sir Walter could not go himself, but he 
269 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

furnished Kemys with the most explicit in- 
structions to run no great risks, and to avoid 
provoking an encounter with the Spaniards. 
"If you find," he said to him, and also re- 
peated in written orders, "that the Mine 
be not so rich as may warrant the holding of 
it, then you may bring but a basket of the 
ore, in order to satisfy his Majesty that 
my design was not imaginary but true, 
though not answering perhaps to his ex- 
pectations. Of the quantity, I never gave 
assurance, nor could. . . . On the other hand, 
if you should find that any great number of 
soldiers have been sent into the Orinoco — as 
the cacique of Caliana assured us there had — 
and that the passage be reinforced so that 
without manifest peril of my son, of yourself, 
and the other captains, you cannot pass to 
the Mine, then be well advised [that is, use 
great caution] how you land. For I know, 
with a few gentlemen excepted, what a scum 
of men you have. And I would not for all 
the world receive a blow from the Spaniards to 
the dishonor of our nation! I myself, for 
weakness, cannot go with you, for the gal- 
leons of Spain are daily expected. . . . Let 
me hear from you as soon as you can. You 
shall find me at Puncto Gallo [southwestern 
270 



THE FATEFUL VOYAGE 

point of Trinidad]; and if you find not my 
ships there you shall find their ashes. For 
I will fire upon the galleons if it come to 
extremity, but run will I never!" 

The flotilla departed up the river, and 
Raleigh set sail for the Bay of Paria, where, 
evading an encounter with the Governor of 
Trinidad, he anchored his fleet in a spacious 
harbor near the point called Terra de Brea. 
It was not far from the celebrated ''Pitch 
Lake" of Trinidad, which he had visited on 
the former voyage, and from which he ex- 
tracted material for "pitching" the seams 
of his vessels, he said, as good as any that 
ever came out of Norway. The heat in this 
roadstead was extreme ; but the Bay of Paria 
is vast and breezy, and soon the sick men 
recovered their health, and the well ones, 
under the leadership of Sir Walter, passed 
their time pleasantly exploring by sea and 
on shore. 

Meanwhile, the men of the flotilla were 
forcing their way up the Orinoco, slowly but 
persistently, against the terrible current, 
and through swamps that reduced their 
spirits to the lowest ebb, so vast and dreary 
were they. Twenty- three days it took them 
to reach the region in which the mine was 
271 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

supposed to be situated, near the confluence 
of the Caroni with the Orinoco. Their 
month's supply of provisions was nearly ex- 
hausted, and they were almost famished, as 
well as worn out with rowing for weeks be- 
neath the blaze of a tropical sun. In this 
forlorn condition they made a landing just 
below the mouth of the Caroni, with the in- 
tention of marching thence through the for- 
est to the mine, which, though since thought 
to have been mythical, was supposed to be 
situated quite near. Kemys knew that the 
Spaniards had made a settlement near the 
confluence of the rivers, which they named 
St. Thomas; but he did not know that they 
had also raised a fort lower down, which was 
then occupied by soldiers from Trinidad. 
Thanks to information furnished by King 
James to Gondomar, and by him trans- 
mitted to the Governor of Trinidad, the 
Spaniards were enabled to plant an ambush 
at or near the very spot selected by Kemys 
as a starting-point for the expedition in 
search of the mine. 

A camp was made, supper was prepared 

and eaten, and at nightfall the weary men 

were about to sleep when suddenly a fire 

of musketry was opened on them from the 

272 



THE FATEFUL VOYAGE 

dense thickets on the river- bank. Taken so 
by surprise, the undisciplined soldiers were 
thrown into confusion ; but the gallant Kemys 
rallied them before they had gained the 
boats, and the more courageous followed him 
in a desperate charge. The enemy were dis- 
lodged and driven back upon the town, 
which was found unexpectedly near — a mere 
collection of palm-thatched huts in a strag- 
gling line between the river and the forest. 
Several Englishmen had been killed and 
wounded in the fire from ambush, which so 
exasperated the survivors that, despite Sir 
Walter's instructions to the contrary, Kemys 
could not prevent them from attacking the 
Spaniards in their town, which was carried 
by the musketeers and pikemen. The Span- 
iards were driven to take shelter in the forest, 
but they had not given up the fight without 
inflicting severe losses upon the English. 
Foremost in the charge was young Walter 
Raleigh, gallantly leading his pikemen against 
the defensive outworks of the town when a 
musket -ball from the enemy brought him 
to the ground. His wound bled profusely, 
but, quickly springing to his feet, he waved 
his sword and shouted to his men to press 
forward. A burly Spaniard blocked his way, 
273 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

who, when he aimed a stroke at him with 
his sword, defended himself so well with a 
clubbed musket that a second time young 
Raleigh fell to the ground, but now with a 
wound that ended his life. As his men 
gathered about him, he faintly breathed: 
"Go on, my hearts, go on! Here is the mine 
we seek. They that look for any other are 
fools! May God have mercy upon me!" 
These were his last words, for then he died. 
After the town was taken, at sunset of the 
day in which the Spaniards were defeated, 
he was buried in the church of St. Thomas, 
near the high altar, with Captain Cosmer, a 
comrade, by his side, who had also fallen 
in that fight. 

Captain Kemys had won a doubtful vic- 
tory at an irreparable loss, the effects of 
which were to be felt for centuries. He had 
no heart to continue the exploration, and 
the Spaniards, by inciting the Indians to 
attack and repeatedly attempting to burn 
St. Thomas to the ground, did all they could 
to discourage him. Still, Kemys made one 
desperate attempt to reach the mine, and 
sent an expedition farther up the Orinoco, 
under George Raleigh, who was greatly im- 
pressed with the country's advantages for 
274 



THE FATEFUL VOYAGE 

colonization. If but his uncle had seconded 
his attempts, an English colony might have 
been started then and there; but the news 
from the seat of war turned Sir Walter's 
heart to water, and no effort was made. 

When within a few hours of the mine, it 
is thought, after enduring losses by disease 
and nightly assaults by both Spaniards and 
Indians, the dispirited commander gave up, 
and turned his back upon El Dorado forever. 
Made reckless of consequences by his fear- 
ful losses, before Kemys finally evacuated 
St. Thomas he sacked the town and plundered 
the church — which acts, in the eyes of the 
Spaniards, constituted the culmination of 
his crimes. All the plunder together did 
not amount to more than forty thousand 
reales, and none of it was ore of gold, save 
a few ingots, thus showing conclusively that 
the mine, if it existed, could not have been 
worked by the Spaniards. Neither was there 
any bag of ore directly from the mine, nor 
even a single nugget, to prove to King 
James the integrity of Raleigh's intentions. 
All this negative evidence, taken together 
with the bloodshed and plundering, would 
surely turn the King against him if he 
were not already his inveterate enemy. The 

19 275 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

''writing on the wall" was plain enough to 
poor Captain Kemys when he dejectedly 
began his return journey down the Orinoco, 
and also to his commander when the letter 
arrived announcing the death of his son and 
encounters with the Spaniards. 

While all these disasters were occurring 
to his soldiers in the wilderness, Sir Walter 
and his men remained off the coast of Trini- 
dad, in the Gulf of Paria, recuperating from 
the fatigues of the voyage, and as soon as he 
himself had sufficiently recovered his strength 
he began an investigation of the wonders on 
shore. The tropical forests, the lake of 
asphalt, the coral-reefed bocas — all were 
objects of his attention. In this pursuit he 
found solace, and a delightful occupation for 
his mind, until rudely aroused by the terrible 
tidings from St. Thomas. Then he withdrew 
in despair into his cabin, and there, alone 
with his griefs, he awaited the return of the 
unlucky expedition. 

On March 2d, after an absence of nearly 
two months, the remains of the flotilla 
returned to the fleet. To the few who 
had seen him after he had learned of 
young Walter's death, Raleigh appeared 
calm, but sadly distraught; but when the 
276 



THE FATEFUL VOYAGE 

unhappy Kemys arrived, it seemed he could 
no longer hold himself in restraint. Two 
broken-hearted men retired into the cabin 
of the Destiny, one of them, the unfortunate 
Kemys, to an interview which he had long 
foreseen and dreaded more than death. He 
faced his commander resolutely, however, 
though it was already a lost cause that he 
pleaded. He was overcome by grief and re- 
morse, for he felt he knew the justice of Sir 
Walter's charges — that by fatal neglect he 
had caused the death of his son ; that through 
lack of energy he had failed to find the mine; 
that by disobedience of orders he had come 
into conflict with the enemy; and, finally, 
that by returning without any token what- 
ever of El Dorado, for the satisfaction of the 
King, he had imperilled all their lives. 

Sir Walter's grief had doubtless driven 
him to the verge of madness. ''Oh, I would 
rather leave my body in that church of St. 
Thomas, by the side of my poor son," he 
declared, ''than to return without him! Nor 
have you brought out from the mine so 
much ore as might have satisfied the King! 
I am undone! What shall become of me I 
know not! I am unpardoned in England, 
and my poor estate consumed, and whether 
277 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

any prince will give me bread or no, I know 
not. But what care I, now that my dear 
son is dead?" 

Kemys was stupefied with sorrows over 
which he had long brooded, and could make 
no reply. Without a word, he placed before 
Sir Walter some papers which he had found 
in the governor's house at St. Thomas. They 
contained the correspondence between Gon- 
domar and the Governor of Guiana, showing 
conclusively that the Englishmen were fore- 
doomed before they sailed. Raleigh glanced 
over them listlessly, but suddenly started as 
though he had received an electric shock, 
for there he saw himself proclaimed a traitor 
to his King by the very acts which Kemys 
had committed. The trap had been con- 
trived in London, with the connivance of 
King James ; it was baited by the Spaniards 
on the Orinoco, and — he had marched straight 
into it! 

He looked up and met his captain's ques- 
tioning glance. *'It is not thy fault alto- 
gether, friend," he said, grasping his faith- 
ful retainer by the hand. "It is mine as 
well, and we must return to face these 
charges." 

They knew their fate: they knew that 
278 



THE FATEFUL VOYAGE 

their death-warrants were as good as signed 
already; but at least one of that unhappy 
pair was resolved to forestall the vengeance 
of King James and Gondomar. What fol- 
lowed is not exactly known, but as Kemys 
emerged from the cabin he was heard to 
say: ''Is that, sir, your final determination?" 
Upon Raleigh's reply, in a harsh voice, "It 
is," he rejoined, ''Then, sir, / know what 
course to take J' and retired to his own cabin. 
Hearing the report of a firearm issue from 
it shortly after, Raleigh sent a page to in- 
quire the cause. The boy was told by Kemys, 
who was lying in his bunk, that he had dis- 
charged his pistol by accident, and with- 
drew; but soon after another boy entered 
the cabin in the course of his duties, and 
found his master stretched dead upon the 
floor, with a pistol wound in his body and a 
dagger thrust through his heart. These 
wounds had been self-inflicted by the un- 
happy Kemys, who was the third of Sir 
Walter's devoted followers to precede him 
to the grave on that ill-fated expedition. 
With him died the secret of the mine — if one 
there were; and after his death Raleigh no 
longer had an incentive to search for El 
Dorado. The golden country and the Gilded 
279 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

King faded into the mists from which they 
had arisen — the mists of Indian tradition — 
and no one yet has rediscovered them. 

The homeward track was soon after taken, 
and the discomfited Raleigh, with a mutinous 
crew tempting him to piracy, and compelled 
to promise an attack upon the Spanish 
treasure-fleet to insure their service, slowly 
made his way across the Atlantic. All his 
hopes and ambitions were buried with his 
son in that lonely grave at St. Thomas, by 
whose side he longed to lay his weary body 
for its final rest; but his wife and younger 
son still lived in England, so for its shores he 
shaped his course, though well aware that 
his enemies merely waited there to slay him. 



V 



XVIII 

AT THE king's MERCY 
1618 

WHY did Sir Walter Raleigh return di- 
rectly to England after the disastrous 
ending of the flotilla expedition ? If it were 
merely spoils that he was after, and ven- 
geance upon the Spaniards that he was seek- 
ing, why did he not ravage the settlements 
in the West Indies and along the coast of 
terra firma? He might have had them at 
his mercy, for he had a fleet well equipped 
for privateering, which had done nothing 
while the flotilla was up the Orinoco, and 
which did nothing after its return, though 
the crews were seething with dissatisfaction 
at their admiral's inaction. He had said 
to Bacon, if tradition is true, that in de- 
fault of ore from the mine, he would bring 
back treasure from the plate-fleet, that made 
the annual voyage from Panama to Spain. 
When Bacon suggested that such an act 
281 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

would be piracy, he rejoined: "Piracy? Who 
ever heard of men being pirates for milHons ?" 
He had correctly gauged the sentiment of 
the times and of the court, but he was later 
declared a pirate, in spite of the prevailing 
opinion that one could not commit an act 
of piracy against Spain on any sea south of 
the equator. 

Raleigh might have evaded his doom for 
a while — perhaps have escaped the penalty 
of his crime altogether — if he had but taken 
advantage of his position as commander of 
a fleet containing a crew w^ell disposed for 
privateering, or if he had yielded to his own 
inclination and hastened over to France, 
w^here he would have been well received and 
safe from his foes; or, still again, had he be- 
taken himself to his American settlement at 
Roanoke, which he had long desired to see, 
which he had kept in mind for more than 
thirty years, and which — or, rather, the im- 
mediate successor of which — was a flourish- 
ing colony of Virginia. Yet again, had not 
the Indians of Guiana begged him to remain 
and reign over them as their king, promising 
him true allegiance, and a retreat from his en- 
emies, in the vast Guianian forests, where he 
would be safe from harm so long as he lived ? 
282 



AT THE KING'S MERCY 

Though he invented the tales told, as he 
alleged, by the Indians of Guiana in Eliza- 
beth's time, it is true that he was considered 
by them as their friend, that they held him 
in remembrance long after he had died, and 
sent messengers to seek for him even while 
he was a prisoner in the Tower. Nearly two 
hundred years after he had visited the Ind- 
ians of Guiana, Alexander von Humboldt 
found traditions respecting him still extant 
among their descendants, and, according to 
another, a banner he had left with them was 
still sacredly preserved as late as the middle 
of the last century. Raleigh had the faculty 
of winning men to him whenever he deigned 
to make the effort, and to hold them for 
years, as witness Kemys and Whidden, Pig- 
got and King, devoted and long-serving fol- 
lowers who were ready to lay down their 
lives in his behalf. So there is no doubt at 
all that Sir Walter Raleigh could have found 
a following whichsoever way he might turn; 
but he thought only of wife and son await- 
ing him in England, and, despite the decree 
of outlawry against him there, he chose to 
take the highway leading to the headsman's 
block. 

Raleigh's fleet arrived off the coast of Eng- 
283 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

land the second week in June, 1618, and 
on the 2ist of that month the ill-fated 
Destiny entered Plymouth harbor. Lady 
Raleigh met her husband almost as soon as 
he had set foot on shore, and from his own 
lips heard the sXovy of hardship, disaster, 
and fatalities. They scarcely had time to 
mourn together when Raleigh was arrested 
by the Vice- Admiral of Devon, "Sir Judas" 
Stukely, who had received his orders from 
the King. He was Sir Walter's kinsman, 
but he performed his revolting duty with 
alacrity, and showed no mercy to the help- 
less pair, so soon parted after such a long 
separation. 

The arrest of Raleigh was the sequel to a 
dramatic scene that took place in the month 
of May preceding at the court of King James. 
Spain's vindictive ambassador, Gondomar, 
had received the tidings from St. Thomas, 
on the Orinoco. He hastened with the news 
to the court, and bursting excitedly into 
King James's presence, shouted: ''Pirata! 
pirata! pirataf Your man Raleigh is a 
pirate, for he has murdered the subjects of 
my king, and has plundered them of their 
possessions! Now I demand the penalty, 
O King!" 

284 



AT THE KING'S MERCY 

"The penalty shall be paid," answered 
James ; and this reply was the prelude to the 
last scene of all in Sir Walter Raleigh's life — 
that which ended with his execution. For 
the King's proclamation swiftly followed, 
declaring that this recreant subject, Raleigh, 
had " made an horrible invasion of the town 
of St. Thome, and committed a malicious 
breaking of the Peace, which hath been so 
happily established, and so long inviolately 
continued." 

Aside from his inclination for peace, King 
James had an interest in keeping the favor 
of Spain, at that moment, on account of the 
marriage engagement then being negotiated 
between his son and the Spanish infanta. 
It would not do, of course, to allow a subject 
of the King to break the peace with Spain 
while his Majesty was seeking an alliance 
with its royal family. A victim was de- 
manded ; Sir Walter became that victim, and 
was sacrificed in expiation of his offence. He 
might have escaped, even after his arrival at 
Plymouth ; for news of the King's proclama- 
tion had reached him at sea, and a French 
vessel was awaiting him in the harbor — 
provided, probably, by his far-seeing and 
self-sacrificing wife. For a while he was in- 
285 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

clined to take the only road that then offered 
for liberty; but he reasoned with himself 
that to do so would be an acknowledgment 
of guilt, and chose to stay. On the way to 
London, while in charge of Stukely, he passed 
by beautiful Sherborne, where he had spent 
the happiest and busiest days of his life. 
''All this was mine," he could not refrain 
from saying, in the bitterness of his spirit, 
"and it was taken from me unjustly." This 
was true, but still it was remembered to his 
injtiry when the malicious King heard of it. 

Another charge against him was that he 
secured delay, while on the road to London, 
by making himself sick with a drug; but by 
means of it he was enabled to write his 
masterly Apology for the Voyage to Guiana, 
which has long outlived his enemies and is 
to-day his vindication to posterity. He 
was outrageously abused for using this 
subterfuge to gain time, but the object cer- 
tainly justified the means. Time was most 
precious to him then, for, as he himself said, 
in asking for opportunity to arrange his 
earthly affairs: "As soon as ever I come to 
London they will have me to the Tower 
and cut off my head!" 

He had a sure prevision of his fate, and if, 
286 



AT THE KING'S MERCY 

as was further charged against him, he at the 
last attempted to escape to France, was he 
not justified in such an effort ? Raleigh's sad 
fate was attracting the attention not only of 
Spain's royal ruler, but also that of France, 
who would gladly have offered the perse- 
cuted man an asylum in his kingdom. The 
French ambassador somehow communicated 
this fact to him, and boats were provided 
on the Thames. But Stukely became privy 
to the matter, and when at last Sir Walter, 
one dark night, set out for the French ship, 
he was followed by another boat containing 
an armed guard, arrested, and returned to 
land. For frustrating this attempt, which 
he had convinced Sir Walter he was desirous 
of promoting, Stukely received a thousand 
pounds, and it was on this occasion that he 
earned the title which was afterward bestow- 
ed upon him of "Sir Judas," since he sold 
his master for a sum of silver. 

The captive's only remark when he dis 
covered Stukely's perfidy was, "Sir Lewis, 
these actions will not turn out to your 
credit" — a dignified protest which the mis- 
erable wretch must often have recalled 
when he became, soon after, an outcast from 
society. There may seem to have been no 
287 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

need of all this by-play, this protracted 
torture of a victim already so securely 
clutched that there was never a chance for 
his escape ; but it was in conformity with the 
King's policy, in order to induce Sir Walter 
to convict himself of his guilt by these vain 
endeavors. 

King James was resolved upon an execu- 
tion, but he desired that it should be carried 
out ** decently and in order," so that his 
popularity might not suffer. Executed Sir 
Walter should be — there was no doubt of 
that ; but should he be delivered over to the 
King of Spain for him to exact reparation, 
after the methods of the Inquisition, or 
would it be better to have him "lawfully 
tried" in his own country? The Spanish 
King declared himself satisfied, so he was 
put to death for his crimes, and James ap- 
pealed to Sir Francis Bacon, the recently 
created Lord Chancellor, for advice how to 
commit the murder judicially. This learned 
but truckling sycophant advised the King 
that inasmuch as Sir Walter Raleigh was al- 
ready attainted of high treason, he could not 
"judicially be drawn in question for any 
crime since committed. But," proceeds the 
wary assassin, ''the King may issue his royal 
288 



AT THE KING'S MERCY 

warrant for an execution upon the conviction 
of i6oj, and at the same time publish a 
narrative of his late crimes and offences in 
print!" 

In other words, the King was advised to 
murder Sir Walter on the strength of his 
conviction for treason fifteen years before; 
but the public should be given to under- 
stand, and the King of Spain made to be- 
lieve, that he was executed on account of 
crimes committed in 1618. Under the sem- 
blance of a legal proceeding, said Bacon, he 
might be called before the King's council of 
state, and be told that this form of proced- 
ure was taken "because he was civilly dead 
already." Being "civilly dead," of course, 
he could not plead nor cause any trouble 
to the King or his eminent judges by a 
protracted trial that might excite public 
attention. 

The prisoner did plead, however, when 
finally brought before the King's council, 
in accordance with Bacon's advice, that he 
had received a pardon by the issuance of 
the royal commission, and he cited the 
opinion of the Lord Chancellor himself in 
the matter. Fearing the very consequences 
of which he was then a victim, just before 
289 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

sailing on that fatal voyage Raleigh had 
inquired of Bacon if his safety would not 
be better assured by a pardon under the 
Great Seal rather than inferred on the 
strength of the commission. Bacon had re- 
plied: ''You have a pardon already by the 
terms of your commission." Sir Walter 
hinted that more money would be forth- 
coming, if necessary for the purpose ; but the 
illustrious lawyer, who was then friendly 
to him, answered: *'As money is the knee- 
timber of your voyage, spare your purse in 
this particular; for, upon my life, you have 
a sufficient pardon for all that is past already, 
the King having, under his Great Seal, made 
you admiral of your fleet, and given you 
power of martial law over your officers and 
soldiers. Your commission is as good a 
pardon for all former offences as the law of 
England can afford youf 

Could subserviency to royalty go further 
than this, or come nearer to criminality, 
when Bacon, in the year 1618, reversed his 
decision of 1603 i^ order that his master, 
the King, might take the life of an offending 
subject? He was not alone in his base per- 
version of custom and law, for the chief- 
justice, one Montagu, vied with him in his 
290 



AT THE KING'S MERCY 

haste to lay Sir Walter's head at the feet of 
the King. Asked by him if he had anything 
to say before sentence was pronounced, 
Raleigh replied: ''The judgment I received 
to die, so long since, cannot now, I hope, be 
strained; for since it was his Majesty's 
pleasure to grant me a commission to pro- 
ceed on a voyage beyond the seas, wherein 
I had martial power on the life and death 
of others, so, under favor, I presume I stand 
discharged of that judgment. . . . Under 
that commission I undertook a voyage to 
do honor to my sovereign, and to enrich 
his kingdom with gold, of the ore whereof 
this hand hath found and taken in Guiana. 
But the enterprise, notwithstanding my en- 
deavors, had no other issue than what was 
fatal to me — the loss of my son and the 
wasting of my whole estate." 

The brutal judge here interrupted him: 
*'The matter of Guiana is foreign to the 
purpose. The commission does not infer a 
pardon, because treason is a crime which 
must be pardoned by express words, not 
by implication." 

''Then," said Raleigh, perceiving that his 
sentence was already predetermined, his 
doom pronounced, "I can only put myself 

ao 291 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

upon the mercy of the King. His Majesty, 
as well as others who are here present, have 
been of opinion that in my former trial I 
received but hard measure. Had the King 
not been exasperated anew against me, cer- 
tain am I thai I might have lived a thousand 
years before he would have taken advantage 
of that conviction." 

He might well have added, what he once 
said at a former time: ''If I had not loved 
and honored the King truly, and trusted in 
his goodness somewhat too much, I had not 
suffered death." But he was doomed al- 
ready, and the sentence pronounced by the 
judge was merely perfunctory. It was that 
he should be beheaded on the following 
morning, and the judge intimated that he 
ought to feel thankful that he was not to be 
hanged, as his former sentence provided, 
and his corpse subjected to the indignity of 
being quartered and set up on a pole. 

Sir Walter heard his sentence with calm- 
ness, as he had heard that of fifteen years 
before; but he suffered no relapse of obse- 
quiousness, as then, except that, as an Eng- 
lishman, born into a world of fawning ser- 
vility, he could utter no word of reproach 
to the King. ''I desire thus much favor," 
292 



AT THE KING'S MERCY 

he said, addressing the lords with dignity: 
"that I may not be cut off suddenly, but 
have some time granted me before my 
execution, to settle my affairs and my mind 
more than they yet are. I have somewhat 
to do in discharge of my conscience, and I 
have somewhat to satisfy his Majesty in. 
I would beseech the favor of pen, ink, and 
paper. And I also beseech your lordships 
that when I come to die I may have leave 
to speak freely at my farewell. . . . And I 
beseech you all to pray for me." 

The prisoner's reasonable request for time 
in which to prepare himself for the last long 
journey was refused. The King's warrant 
had been already drawn up and dated that 
very day; execution was to follow as soon 
after as the scaffold could be erected in Old 
Palace Yard. The craven monarch was far 
away, on a "progress" through the country, 
beyond the reach of prayers or petitions. 
He desired the execution to take place be- 
fore his return— before the public should 
become aware of the intended crime, and 
arouse to prevent it, or protest. It mattered 
not much to Raleigh, as he said, truly but 
despairingly, for he was old, sickly, in dis. 
grace, certain of death, and life was already 
293 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

wearisome. Still, he was by no means cast 
down, nor did his natural spirits forsake him 
while the blood ran in his veins. On the 
morning of the trial, when summoned in 
haste from the Tower, a servant begged his 
attention to the condition of his hair, which 
had not been combed before he started. 
"Let them comb it that are to have it," he 
said to the man, with a smile ; and then added : 
" Dost know, Peter, of any plaister that will 
set a man's head on again when it is off?" 

Taken to the Gate House at Westminster, 
after sentence had been given, Raleigh there 
received such of his friends as had news of 
the terrible event to take place within a few 
hours' time. To one of them he said: "You 
will come to-morrow morning, of course. 
I do not know what you may do for a place, 
but for my part, / am sure of one! You 
must make what shift you can." 

To another, who had reproved him "for 
carrying it with too much bravery," he re- 
plied: ''It is my last mirth in this world. 
Do not grudge it to me. When I come 
to the sad parting, you will see me grave 
enough." And he was, as his confessor, the 
Dean of Westminster, testified: "When I 
began to encourage him against the fear of 
294 



AT THE KING'S MERCY 

death, he seemed to make so light of it that 
I wondered at him. ... He was the most 
fearless of death that ever was known, and 
the most resolute and confident, yet with 
reverence and conscience." 

But the dean could get no confession from 
him of guilt in any sort, such as the King 
desired him to, for Raleigh said to him, when 
charged with breaking the peace with Spain : 
" How could I break peace with a king who 
within these four years took divers of my 
own men, bound them back to back, and 
drowned them? As for burning the town, 
it stands upon the King of England's own 
ground. I did him no wrong in that." 

"Your assertion of innocency," said the 
King's confessor, sanctimoniously — ' ' is it not 
an oblique taxing of the justice of the realm ?" 

''Nay, nay," replied Raleigh, quickly. **I 
may confess that by course of law I must 
justly die, but you must give me leave to 
stand upon my innocency in the fact. '' Thus 
the King's minions pursued the victim of 
royal malignity to the verge of the scaffold, 
hounding him till he passed beyond their 
reach ; yet did he treat them all with courtesy, 
and of the King no man ever heard him speak 
even reproachfully, though that poor fool was 
295 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

of the sort to be held in derision by all men, in- 
stead of being served with awe and reverence. 

Scarcely was Sir Walter allowed time to 
see his wife alone, so importunate were the 
lay and religious servants of James to have 
the last word with him; but in the night 
that succeeded his sentence she came to 
the Gate House, and was admitted to a last 
interview. Throwing herself into his arms, 
she told him, in a voice choked by sobs, that 
she had only just learned that he was to be 
taken from her in the morning. True, she 
had been assured by the stony - hearted 
James that she should have the privilege 
of burying his body after death, but she 
had not suspected that it would occur so soon. 

Straining her to his heart, Raleigh im- 
pressed a kiss upon her brow, and said, while 
his eyes shone with tenderness: "It is well, 
dear Bess, that thou may est dispose of that 
dead which thou hadst not always the dis- 
posal of when alive." They continued in 
conversation till midnight, reviewing hur- 
riedly their happy years of married life, 
mourning their dead, and planning the future 
for their only son. Soon after the midnight 
hour had struck, Sir Walter conducted Lady 
Raleigh to the door, and there took leave of 
296 



AT THE KING'S MERCY 

her for the last time, imploring her to depart, to 
be brave, and to pray for the safety of his souh 
Their reunion would come, he assured her, and 
no king's edict could part them for eternity. 
He passed the remainder of the time till 
morning in drawing up his last testament, m 
writing directions for the correction of an 
injustice to a former friend, and in formulat- 
ing an answer to the charges made against 
him When morning dawned he welcomed 
with a smile the Dean of Westminster, from 
whom he received the last sacrament, re- 
marking that he had no fear of death, for 
it was but an imagination, and the manner 
of his death, though to others it might seem 
grievous, yet he had rather die so than of a 
burning fever. He then breakfasted and 
smoked a pipe of tobacco, after which a cup 
of sack was brought him. This he drank 
with seeming pleasure, and on being asked 
if it suited him, replied: ''I will answer as 
the fellow did who drank of St. Giles's bowl, 
as he went to Tyburn, 'It^^is a good drink, 
if a man might tarry by it: " 

On his way to the scaffold he saw an aged 

and bald-headed man standing uncovered 

in the cold morning air, and taking off a 

cap which he wore he tossed it to him with 

297 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

the words, "Here, my friend, you need this 
more than I do," then passed on, smiHng and 
erect. His carefully arranged dress and his 
dignity of bearing recalled to those who 
knew him the Sir Walter Raleigh of Eliza- 
beth's time; but his wan and wrinkled face, 
his ague - stricken frame and venerable as- 
pect dispelled this illusion. 

He mounted the scaffold bravely; and 
when the executioner approached and asked 
his forgiveness for the deed he was about to 
commit, he placed both hands upon his 
shoulders and said he had naught against 
him, for he was but doing his duty. Then 
he demanded to see the axe; and when the 
man hesitated, he said: "I prithee let me 
see it. Dost think I'm afraid of it ?" Pass- 
ing his thumb along its edge, he returned it, 
saying: "This is a sharp medicine, but it is 
a cure for all diseases!" 

Before submitting himself to the execu- 
tioner he made a long harangue, in which 
he reiterated his declaration of innocence, 
and also made a statement clearing him of 
the charge that he was accessory to the 
death of Essex. "It was said that I was a 
persecutor of him, and that I stood in a win- 
dow over against him when he suffered and 
298 



AT THE KING'S MERCY 

puffed out tobacco in disdain of him. But 
I take God to witness that I did shed tears 
for him when he died. And, as I hope to 
look in the face of God hereafter, my Lord 
Essex did not see my face when he suffered, 
and my soul hath many times been grieved 
that I was not near unto him when he died, 
because I understood that he asked for me, 
to be reconciled to me. ... I knew that he 
was a noble gentleman, and that it would 
be worse with me when he was gone, for 
those that did set me up against him did 
afterward set themselves up against me." 

Begging the sheriff for a few moments more 
of grace, he said in explanation, and with a 
sad smile: ''I have a long journey to take, 
you know, and must bid all this company 
farewell." His friends now crowded about 
to shake his hand, and when all had gone he 
said: ''Now I entreat that you will all join 
with me in prayer to that great God of heaven 
whom I have grievously offended ; that He 
will, of his almighty goodness, extend to me 
forgiveness, being a man full of vanity, and 
one who hath lived a sinful life, in such 
callings as have been most inducive to it; 
for I have been a soldier, a sailor, and a 
courtier — all of them courses of wickedness 
299 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

and vice. But I trust He will not only cast 
away my sin, but will receive me into ever- 
lasting life." 

Kneeling at the block, he said to the heads- 
man: "When I stretch forth my hands, 
despatch me." The dean suggested that 
he should turn his face to the east, when he 
replied: "What matters it which way the 
head lie, so the heart be right?" He then 
gave the signal to the executioner, and a 
delay ensuing, he again stretched out his 
hands, saying: "What dost thou fear? 
Strike, man! — strike!" Two cruel blows 
severed the head from the body. When it 
was held aloft by the headsman a shudder of 
horror ran through the throng about the 
scaffold, and one man shouted: "We have 
not such another head to cut off!" 

The gory trophy of a king's crime was 
placed in a red leather bag and given to Lady 
Raleigh, who caused it to be embalmed, and 
kept it by her through nearly thirty years of 
widowhood. Bequeathed to her only sur- 
viving son, Carew Raleigh, it was taken with 
him to the grave when he was buried by his 
father's side at Westminster. 



INDEX 



Aguirre.Lope de, searches 
for El Dorado, 158-160. 

Alfinger, searches for El 
Dorado, 157. 

Amadas, Captain Philip, 
voyages to America, 54. 

Arenberg, Count of, 230, 

243- 
Ark Royal, the, 187, 190. 
Armada, Spanish, repelling 

of, 104-115; decription 

of battle, 1 1 2-1 1 5. 
Aston, Sir Roger, quoted, 

242, 243. 

Barlow. Captain Ar- 
thur, voyages to Amer- 
ica, 54-58, 63-67. 

Berreo, Antonio de, search- 
es for El Dorado, 162; 
taken prisoner by Ra- 
leigh, 163, 164. 

Blount, Sir Christopher, 
207. 

Boroughs, Sir John, com- 
mands English fleet, 
135; captures the Mac^r^ 
de Dios, 143. 

Brook, George, trial of , 237; 
executed, 248. 



Cadiz, fall of, i 88-195, 198. 
Cavendish, Thomas, cir- 



cumnavigates the globe, 
72. 

Cecil, Sir Robert, 218, 
224. 

Champernoun, Sir Philip, 7. 

Clerke, execution of, 248. 

Cobham, Lord, intimacy 
with Raleigh, 215; plots 
against the King, 226; 
arrest, 233; accuses 
Raleigh, 234; retraction, 
236; trial, 237; found 
guilty, 243; execution 
postponed, 248. 

Dare, Virginia, birth of, 
82, 86. 

Davis, Captain John, sails 
to and explores Amer- 
ica, 79. 

Desmond, Earl of, estate 
in Ireland, 95. 

Devereux, Lady Dorothy, 
32. 

Drake, Sir Francis, priva- 
teer, 5; at Roanoke, 76; 
attack on Spanish fleet, 
109, no; expedition to 
Portugal, 119; death, 
187. 



El Dorado, search for, 
154-156, 157' 271-276. 

301 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 



Elizabeth, Queen, friend- 
ship for Raleigh, 27- 
30; for the Earl of 
Leicester, 33; for the 
Earl of Essex, 33, 34; 
personal appearance, 34, 
35; grants to Raleigh, 
36-38; whims, 131; ex- 
pedition against Spain, 
186; condemns the Earl 
of Essex to death, 209; 
declining years ,216,217, 
demise, 220. 

Essex, Earl of, marches 
upon Lisbon, 119, 120; 
before Cadiz, 187-195; 
quarrel with Raleigh, 
201; Governor of Ire- 
land, 205; confined in 
the Tower, 206, 207; 
execution, 209, 210. 

Frobisher, Sir Martin, 
^33' 135- 

Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 
early history, 7, 15; 
sails for America, 18, 
19; voyage in 1583, 40- 
47; death, 48. 

Gorges, Sir Fernando, 207. 

Grenville, Sir Richard, 
sails for America, 72, 
77; commands Roanoke 
fleet, 127; attacked by 
Spanish fleet, 128; death, 
129. 

Grey, Lord, plots against 
the King, 226. 

Haies, M. Edward, re- 
port of Gilbert's voyage 



in 1583, 40-43 



Hakluyt, Richard, 18, 19. 

Hawkins, Sir John, slave- 
trader, 5; introduced 
tobacco into England, 
90; death, 187. 

Henry, Prince, interest in 
Raleigh, 254, 255. 

Heriot, Thomas, voyages 
to Virginia, 72; descrip- 
tion of region visited, 80. 

Howard, Lord Thomas, 
and Spanish Armada, 
106, 112; expedition 
against Spain , 187. 

James, King, meeting with 
Raleigh, 22i:; plot 
against , 225-227; com- 
mits Raleigh to the 
Tower, 252; grants 
Raleigh his liberty, 263, 
266; betrays Raleigh , 
267, 268, 278; condemns 
Raleigh to death, 289. 

Kemys, Captain Law- 
rence, searches for El 
Dorado, 184, 269, 271- 
276; death, 279. 

Lane, Captain Ralph, at 
Roanoke, 74-76; return 
to Englana, 77; weak- 
ness, 80. 

Leicester, Earl of, Eliza- 
beth's friendship for, 33. 

Leigh, Captain, exploit of, 
loi, 102. 

Madre de Dios, the, capt- 
ured, 143. 
Manetc, baptism of, 82, 86. 
Manoa (the Golden City), 



302 



INDEX 



search for, 155, 157,' 
160, 162, 164, 165, 174. 

Martinez, Juan, visit to 
Manoa, 165. 

Mermaid Club, the, 214. 

NoRRis, Sir John, ex- 
pedition to Portugal of, 
119. 

Orellana, searches for El 
Dorado, 158. 

Perrott, Sir Thomas, 32. 
Popham, Sir John, 238, 
243- 

Ralegh, Ark, 41, 52, 106, 
107. 

Raleigh, Carew, 256, 267, 
300. 

Raleigh, George, 269, 274. 

Raleigh, Katherine Cham- 
pernoun, 7, 8. 

Raleigh, Sir Walter, birth 
of, 6; mother, 7 ; brothers, 
7, 9; school-days, 10, 11; 
sails for France, 11; 
voyages to America, 18, 
19, 163; service in Ire- 
land, 19-26; Elizabeth's 
favorite, 27-29, 35; 
dress, 30, 204; special 
privileges, 36; expedi- 
tion to Roanoke, 54-70; 
secures colonists for Vir- 
ginia, 71; outcome of ex- 
pedition, 77; activities, 
79,80; third expedition 
81-84; introduces to- 
bacco into Great Brit- 
ain, 87; addicted to its 
use, 91-93; interest in 



Virginia, 93, 94; a col- 
onizer in Ireland, 95; 
Mayor of Youghal, 96; 
troubles in Ireland, 98- 
102; share in repelling 
the Spanish Armada, 
104-110; attempts to re- 
store Dom Antonio to 
throne of Portugal, 119; 
champions Spenser, 121- 
124; restored to favor 
at court, 125; on Sir 
Richard Grenville, 128, 
130; expedition against 
Spain in 1592, 131-133; 
committed to Tower of 
London, 137, 234, 252; 
marriage, 139; liberated, 
146, 262; searches for El 
Dorado, 154, 160, 162, 
269-276; attack on Gov- 
ernor Berreo, 163, 164; 
ascends the Orinoco, 
1 68- 177; returns to Eng- 
land, 183; before Cadiz, 
188-195; description of 
battle, 192-195; attack 
on Fayal, 200; quarrels 
with Lord Essex, 201; 
Governor of Jersey, 201; 
against monopolies, 212, 
213; founds the Mer- 
maid Club, 214; in- 
timacy with Lord Cob- 
ham, 215; meeting with 
King James, 221; de- 
posed as Governor of 
Jersey, 223; accused of 
treason, 229-233; trial, 
237-242; found guilty 
and sentenced to death, 
243, 244, 292; appeal to 
King James, 245; execu- 



303 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 



tion postponed, 249 ; vis- 
its from Prince Henry, 
255; children, 255, 256; 
estate confiscated, 256, 
257, 258; writings, 259- 
261; preparations for 
last voyage, 264 265, 
267; betrayed by King 
James, 267, 268, 278; 
arrival in South Amer- 
ica, 269; death of son, 
274; despair, 277, 278; 
return to England, 280- 
283; arrest, 284; death, 
300. 

Raleigh, Walter, Jr., 255, 
256, 267, 269, 273, 274. 

Revenge, the, 128-130. 

Roanoke, settlement of, 73, 
77, 84; monument, 86. 

Roche, Lord, 22, 23. 

Slaves in America, 5. 
Spanish in West Indies, 2, 

3- 
Spenser, Edmund, poet, 

121-124. 
Stuart, Lady Arabella,228, 

229-231, 237, 262. 
Stukely, Sir Lewis, 284, 

287. 



Throgmorton, Eliza- 

BETH, 138, 139, 211, 

255. 296, 300. 

Throgmorton, Sir Nicholas 

138. 
Tobacco, introduced in 

Great Britain, 87-90; 

extensive use, 91,92. 
"Treason of the Bye," the, 

227, 228. 
"Treason of the Main," 

the, 227. 

Udall, John, imprison- 
ment, 125, 126. 

Ursua, Don Pedro de, 
searches for El Dorado, 
158. 

Watson, plots against 
King James, 226; ex- 
ecuted, 248. 

Whidden, Captain, searches 
for El Dorado, 162. 

White, Captain John, sails 
for America, 81, 82; re- 
turns to England, 83; 
expedition to Virginia, 
84. 

Winwood, Sir Ralph, ad- 
mirer of Raleigh, 263. 



THE END 






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